Now, some dormitories are very nice and the workers are well taken care of but this is generally not the case. Not that the factory owners are evil (although some are) but they are pressured by outside countries to keep making their product faster and cheaper. They can do this partly because they have the upper hand and can always threaten to take their orders to another factory. There are reports of sexual harassment, lack of pay (overtime and regular pay), working 24 hours straight to fulfill orders, etc. Also, with these young girls (away from family in the big cities, often the first time they are away) depression is very common. Due to these economic factors and deeper cultural reasons, Chinese females have the highest suicide rate in the world!
I want to mention this because sometimes people see "made in China" products as inferior. If you take a careful look at products made everywhere, there are many recalls and lack of quality control issues. Now, I agree China has to be much better in making sure their exports keep up with the standards posted for whichever country it is going to and do something about their human rights issue. But we must be careful not to fall into xenophobia and the automatic assumption that "made in China" automatically means an inferior product. I have bought many products from different countries and they vary dependent on the company, the factories that make it, and the workers in the factories. Truth is, the head companies will no longer pay the money that the "old world artisans" deserve. Instead, things are made by machines and workers they pretty much see as dispensable (this happens everywhere, not just in China). Question is, would we as consumers pay much, much more for the same product if it was made not in these conditions?
I hope Coach treats their workers well but based upon what I see from the sweatshops and immigrant farm workers here in America (where we have laws protecting them), I assume it would be worse in a country where the treatment is completely up to the factory owners, the foreign head companies, and a country which has a poor human rights record. All that being said, I hope it was informative! And yes, although I am concerned, I am still a Coach consumer.
Coach does have standards, and they gladly meet them even with producing goods in China. After all they are a corporation that is looking for a maximum profit from the cost of production!