WP,pg1: In China, Workers Turn Tough (new labor era?)

[DeepModem Mom]

In China, Workers Turn Tough
Spate of Walkouts May Signal New Era

By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, November 27, 2004; Page A01


DONGGUAN, China -- Heralded by an unprecedented series of walkouts, the first stirrings of unrest have emerged among the millions of youthful migrant workers who supply seemingly inexhaustible cheap labor for the vast expanse of factories in China's booming Pearl River Delta.

The signs of newly assertive Chinese workers have jolted foreign and Chinese factory owners, who for the last two decades have churned out everything from Nikes to baby dolls with unbeatably low production costs. Some have concluded that the raw era in which rootless Chinese villagers would accept whatever job they could get may be drawing to a close, raising questions about China's long-term future as world headquarters for low-paid outsourcing....

***

Stella International Ltd., a Taiwanese-owned shoe manufacturer employing 42,000 people in and around Dongguan, faced strikes this spring that turned violent. At one point, more than 500 rampaging workers sacked company facilities and severely injured a Stella executive, leading hundreds of police to enter the factory and round up ringleaders....

***


Chiang suggested that several factors have contributed to the shift in attitude. On the one hand, he acknowledged, assembly-line wages have not risen in recent years nearly as fast as the cost of living. On the other, image-conscious U.S. retailers who buy Dongguan's shoes have demanded better treatment and human rights counseling for the workers, encouraging them to step up and make demands for change.

Finally, Chiang added, broader general freedoms in the country have reduced the Chinese people's traditional fear of authority, and not just among factory workers....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15464-2004Nov26.html

[cavanaghjam]

1. If only the U.S.

would state the obvious, "Trade with nations whose workers are not free is not free trade; it is nothing less than slavery", maybe the right for workers to collectively bargain in India and China, to name but two, would have more of a chance.

[msgadget]

2. It's truly the only moral and compassionate way (eom)

[loudsue]

4. I'd be surprised if India jumped on this bandwagon. They seem to be

more "republican" minded than the Chinese, to me, for some reason. :shrug: I don't know why I feel that way... just intuitive, I guess, which of course doesn't hold much water.

:kick::kick:

[the_outsider]

17. Not exactly ...

India has long held socialist democratic and welfare government ideals. It's part of Indian constitution. It also has a tradition of labor movement which was integrated with the anti-colonial movements. In quite a few states like West Bengal and Kerala, leftist governments have been elected to power and they have been ruling those states for the last 30-35 years. Even the current national coalition government has leftist constituents.

Your intuitive perception may have to do with the kind of US jobs getting outsourced to China and India and the people who are taking up those jobs. Most of the jobs going to China are labor-intensive manufacturing jobs. India is getting more of the service-sector jobs. Wages are higher for service jobs and people taking up those jobs are mostly English-speaking professionals. They are relatively well-off compared to the rest of the population and these outsourced jobs affect a much smaller segment of the population than the Chinese manufacturing jobs. In all countries, professionals feel less compulsion to unionize and organize and tend to be more libertarian-"republican" minded as they think they have more to gain than to lose in maintaining the status quo.

[loudsue]

19. Thanks for the info, outsider.....

That makes sense, and is probably why I was seeing the way I was. I am glad to know that India takes better care of their workers. It supports my belief that, the better a country takes care of its workers, the more intelligent and productive they are... just looking at some of the European countries (Belgium, Holland, etc.), they seem to have very competitive companies, and they also support their citizens/workers.

:kick::kick:

[loudsue]

3. YES!!!! I hope the Chinese workers get on the Labor Union bandwagon!!

I hope they set up a system of labor unions that will have new paradigms of unity and balance with the businesses they work for and with; a system that works for everyone involved. Such as: maybe regulating the spread between what the executives can make compared to what the workers make.

Business and corporatism needs an overhaul in this world if we're going to all live on this planet together. A nice start would be to take away "personhood" status of corporations everywhere.

I hope the European Union starts to lead the charge on this; they've already slapped down the GE/Rand (? I think it was Rand) merger, and the Microsoft monopolies.

:kick::kick::kick:

[lovuian]

5. The Day of Cheap Labor is coming to an end and so will

Capitalism!!!

The Party is over!!!

[420inTN]

6. *cough* I thought that the Communist Party was the "Workers" Party? n/t

[cavanaghjam]

7. Much like the Republican Party

which cares not a whit for the republic.

[Robert Oak]

8. dream on if CAFTA and FTAA pass

we'll have a whole new continent of slave labor with repressive
governments.

Not a problem say multinationals.

[HamiltonHabs32]

9. If I knew how to post pictures

I would post Naomi Klein's "No Logo" book cover

[Keirsey]

12. Hamilton, your wish...

In No Logo, Klein patiently demonstrates, step by step, how brands have become ubiquitous, not just in media and on the street but increasingly in the schools as well. The global companies claim to support diversity but their version of "corporate multiculturalism" is merely intended to create more buying options for consumers. When Klein talks about how easy it is for retailers like Wal-Mart and Blockbuster to "censor" the contents of videotapes and albums, she also considers the role corporate conglomeration plays in the process. How much would one expect Paramount Pictures, for example, to protest against Blockbuster's policies, given that they are both divisions of Viacom?

Klein also looks at the workers who keep these companies running, most of whom never share in any of the great rewards. The president of Borders, when asked whether the bookstore chain could pay its clerks a "living wage" wrote that "while the concept is romantically appealing, it ignores the practicalities and realities of our business environment". Those clerks should probably just be grateful they're not stuck in an Asian sweatshop, making pennies an hour to produce Nike sneakers or other must-have fashion items. Klein also discusses at some length the tactic of hiring "permatemps" who can do most of the work and receive few, if any, benefits like health care, paid vacations or stock options. While many workers are glad to be part of the "Free Agent Nation" observers note that, particularly in the high-tech industry, such policies make it increasingly difficult to organise workers and advocate for change.

But resistance is growing and the backlash against the brands has set in. Street-level education programmes have taught kids in the inner cities, for example, not only about Nike's abusive labour practices but about the astronomical mark-up in their prices. Boycotts have commenced: as one urban teen put it, "Nike, we made you. We can break you". But there's more to the revolution, as Klein optimistically recounts: "Ethical shareholders, culture jammers, street reclaimers, McUnion organisers, human-rights hacktivists, school-logo fighters and Internet corporate watchdogs are at the early stages of demanding a citizen-centred alternative to the international rule of the brands ... as global, and as capable of co-ordinated action, as the multinational corporations it seeks to subvert". No Logo is a comprehensive account of what the global economy has wrought and the actions taking place to thwart it. --Ron Hogan

http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0006530400/026-4049572-9318806

[Career Prole]

10. "raising questions about China's long-term future as..."

"...world headquarters for low-paid outsourcing."

Help Wanted:
World's consumers seek new source of slave labor.
Above-average compensation and benefits for complicit government(s).

[Deja Q]

11. Thank God. When the powerful choose to play mean, those the powerful abuse

ultimately stand up for themselves.

China today.

The US's own poor will ultimately do the same thing.

It is not the fault of the poor to stand up for themselves against oppression and maltreatment. We are supposed to be a society, not a dog-eat-dog cesspool. (indeed. If cattle eating cattle led to mad cow disease, the dogs that ate all the others must clearly be mad by now too!)

[lovuian]

14. i agree it gets to the point Do I want to be a slave or Freedom

and usually as the myth goes A hero steps up to lead them!!!

Thats a cycle that has gone on and on!!!OOO

What America capitalism has gone completely mad is its unquenchable thirst for cheaper Labor and China is going to prove their worse nightmare!!!

as well as India too

[fedsron2us]

13. New country, same old crap from the bosses

There is not much communication between the top management and the workers

Could be any company I have worked for in the last 25 years.

[0007]

15. 3.4 million poor folks in the state of Texas. They can't afford

those shoes made in China by the poor. Only the rich can afford 'em or wear 'em.

[SoCalDem]

16. It's bound to happen

If you are working 16 hrs a day 6 days a week, and you cannot afford to buy what you are making, it's a natural thing to revolt..

No matter how China tries to put the information genie back into the bottle, it won't work.

These people are soon educated to the fact that they are paid $1.00 a day to make products that the US buys for $5, and then sells for $100.00.. It;s not a surprise that they are pissed:)

[Sara Beverley]

18. Just when "workers rights" are being destroyed in America, the rest of

world, including communist workers seem to be getting ready to on their systems of government. Amazing, isn't it? Now what do you suppose they are thinking about what is happening to the American worker, giving back hard-fought benefits, wages, and safety regs? The only people who have had to sacrifice anything for this rotten economy have been the American workers while the rich have been getting more and more tax cuts. I just don't understand the thinking in this country. And it doesn't matter if this is explained to some people--even the people who are being hurt the most--they still support the regime that is screwing them! Go figure. :shrug: