This morning, the National Labor Committee released a report entitled “Nightmare on Sesame Street: Ernie Toy Made in Chinese Sweatshop.” Who could resist writing about a report called “Nightmare on Sesame Street”?

A release accompanying the reports says:

Workers making “Ernie” toys are forced to toil 13 to 15 hours a day, from 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 or 11:00 p.m., seven days a week, going for months without a single day off. Workers are at the factory 104 hours a week. There are mandatory 19-to-231/2-hour, all-night shifts before shipments must leave for the U.S. or Europe.


The workers are systematically cheated of half the wages due them, earning just $36.55 for working an 89-hour week instead of the $77.84 they were legally owed. Management cheats the poor workers of over $100,000 in wages due them each month.

That’s mighty bad treatment.

There are at least two bills in Congress meant to curtail this kind of practice. H.R. 1910, H.R. 1992, and S. 367 are all called the Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act. They would would amend the Tariff Act of 1930 to prohibit the import, export, and sale of goods made with sweatshop labor.

There are devilish details like what “sweatshop labor” is – there are places in the world where very bad conditions from an American perspective are quite a bit better than the alternatives – like not working. But the bills cleverly define “core labor standards” – the term of art used in the bill – as the laws that exist on some key issues in the countries where material is produced. That’s respectful of other countries’ decisions and doesn’t try to force American standards where they aren’t (yet) appropriate.

Here’s the current voting on S. 367. Click to vote, comment, learn more, or edit the wiki page: