GP Cadmium Poisoning Case

Actions organised by GP Cadmium Poisoning Coalition—Protest against GP poisoning their workers, both in HK and mainland China and called for fair compensation for workers, in front of big local retailers in busy shopping center in Causeway Bay in the HK island which sell GP batteries. The Coalition DID NOT intend to call for boycotting the GP product, but to inform consumers to be aware that the product they buy may not be produced in humane situation. The GP cadmium poisoning case is a good example to show that without labor groups’ and unions’ monitoring and freedom of association; violations of labor rights can be rampant.

Today is GP’s annual shareholder meeting. Once again the GP Cadmium Poisoning Coalition stages a protest against your company, which continues to poison many workers with cadmium in your plants in mainland China. The Coalition urges GP to accept the workers’ major demands.

We are concerned about the possibility that Mr. Victor Lo Chun-wing will be appointed one of the Executive Council members for the next term. We believe, like most Hong Kong citizens, that as an Executive Council member, one should be of the highest professional and personal integrity, be respectful of law, human rights and labour rights, be law-abiding and conduct business dealings with high levels of transparency and ethical standards. A person who comes from the business sector should set a good example by leading his or her company to set high standards of corporate social responsibility and transparency.

On November 10, 2005 workers whose health has been adversely affected by the chemical cadmium while working at Gold Peak Industrial Holding Ltd’s (hereafter GP) Xianjin and Chaoba factories handed over a letter to the GP Fund board managers. The contents of the letter were chiefly concerned with compensation and medical costs and included a number of clear and reasonable demands. These included: medical checks for the children of female workers who had come into contact with cadmium while employed at the said factories; past, current and future medical costs of the workers, the issue of future employment and the difficult financial circumstances that most of the affected workers now find themselves in.

It has come to our notice that your two factories in HuiZhou, China, has poisoned at least 300 of your workers who were found with much higher than normal level of cadmium last year, and at least six of them has already being officially diagnosis as cadmium poisoning. We are aware of the fact that cadmium is a toxic chemical that must be handled with care. However, you make your workers to process cadmium with little protection and no OSH training for years, which resulted in wide scale poisoning among hundreds of workers. In addition to this, it was also widely reported that there might be serious community pollution by your company. One environmental group found that there were higher than normal level of cadmium in the community.

Today, 30 December 2009, your Huizhou-based subsidiary Huizhou Power Pack Co. Ltd dismissed Wang Fengping for her alleged leading role in a street meeting on 9 December. Wang Fengping’s…

Gold Peak Workers Campaign Update Ex-GP workers win new compensation deal after six years of struggle New developments in the campaign for just compensation: A. Lawsuit and public…

Thanks to Michael Walker who wrote a book review of our publication: No Choice But to Fight. We are glad that we can post his review here. Book Review: No Choice But to Fight Anyone…

Since August 16th 2010, over a hundred GP ex-workers who suffered from excessive levels of Cadmium had started to negotiate with GP in Huizhou. However, GP ignored the workers’ demands and made no concessions. 

Globalization Monitor is continuing to monitor the situation at the Gold peak production sites. In April 2009, Gold Peak made public its decision to move the JetPower plant in Shenzhen to…