Many transnational corporations with U.S. headquarters are not holding to their own standards for worker rights, Alice Kwan, a researcher with the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee, told an audience of about 100 last night in Ticknor Lounge.

In an hour-long talk called "Sweatshops: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," Kwan described the living and working system in South China, where many U.S. companies have factories.

Harvard Students against Sweatshops sponsored the talk.

"Most Chinese workers work 12 to 17 hours a day, seven days a week," Kwan said. "Low wages urge them to work nonstop, day by day, week by week."

Kwan's group gets information from workers, although it is not actually allowed inside the factories.

Many workers live in company-owned dormitories directly next to the factories they work in, Kwan said. Their living fees are often deducted directly from their paychecks.

"Qualities of the dorms and food are awful," Kwan said. "It's like a campus, but not a nice campus like Harvard."

During her talk, Kwan brandished a bright-red report with the face of Mickey Mouse on it. The report detailed the working standards of toys made for the Disney Corporation, Kwan said.