Labor conditions

Re: [spiers] Labor conditions

After reading the article, I called my partner in HK, who operates an
electronic toy factory in Shenzhen. I asked what the labor rates are
right now. He indicates that they are 400 - 700 RMB per month,
depending on a variety of factors, which is 50 - 90 USD, for 40 hrs/
week. Overtime is 1.5 times base rate. I have visited his factory
which seems relatively pleasant, workers were smiling. They are
provided dormitories (2 people per bed, so they sleep alternate
shifts), and food and medical care. They are not allowed to charge
for the fringe benefits, but some factories try to sell "tickets" to
the workers to offset the costs. There are labor laws governing the
labor rates, and if a company tries to charge too low (ahem), then
any worker can complain and have it addressed (tho I don't know how
easy that is to do). He also mentioned that the working conditions
and fringes are the variables that attract workers, the demand is
sometimes high and so they adjust the fringes in order to attract
workers. It sounds like the "loophole" that accommodates supply/
demand variations in an economic system with standard labor rates.

So while none of the readers will want to hop a plane to work in one
of these factories, it sounds like there is free will being exercised
by the workers. Conditions no doubt vary over the country, but this
is a data point.

A related anecdote, is that about 10 years ago, whenever that Kathy
Lee Gifford clothing fiasco uncovered child labor, a foreign news
team converged on my partner's factory. They got an interpreter and
started walking their cameraman up and down the rows of cherubic
faces under hairnets on the factory lines. 'How old are you?' they
asked each one. "28", "25", "27", .... and so on.



On Jun 19, 2006, at 5:01 PM, John Spiers wrote:

> Well, yes...simple...visit the factory... so far, it strikes me
> that China is using precisely the
> means the UK and USA used to move from pre-industrial to industrial
> society, just faster.
> One of the purposes of the WTO is to ensure China and other
> developing countries never
> make it to the fully industrialized stage, by forbidding the
> Chinese and others the means we
> used.
>
> As to Chairman Mao, he no doubt would have had the scoundrels shot,
> because he did not
> care for competition. Tens of millions we enslaved in maoist work
> camps, so even if the
> stories today are true (and I doubt it) this is a huge improvement.
>
> As to "no recourse," things are far more complex than that in
> China, and people have ways of
> extracting justice. When last in china I read about labor
> shortages, not enough skilled labor
> to go around. hard to burn workers when there is a shortage of
> workers.
>
> John
>
>
> On Wed, 14 Jun 2006 23:08:37 -0000, "mgranich"
> wrote :
>
>>
>> John, are you or any other importers on the list, concerned about the
>> conditions at the factory where your imported products are produced?
>>
>> I read this article on the BBC,
>>
>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/5079590.stm
>>
>> Apple ipods may be produced in sweatshop conditions. Workers work 15
>> hours per day and get paid $50/month.
>>
>> Then, I saw a show on PBS about China....I think it was Frontline but
>> I can't remember. The show interviewed a professor at UC Berkley
>> (Born in Hong Kong) who has studied Chinese labor for 25 years. She
>> conveyed a story about migrant construction workers getting paid once
>> a year. The shocking thing was (at least for me) that the worker is
>> paid at the discretion of the construction foreman. If the foreman
>> says "Get lost! I'm not paying you.", the worker has no recourse, he
>> gets nothing. He basically worked the whole year for food and
>> water....a slave. Do such arrangements happen in manufacturing in
>> China? What would Chairman Mao say?
>>
>> Don't get me wrong, John is turning me into a free trade apostle.
>> But I want my designs to bring people opportunity (while fattening my
>> bank account) not add to their plight. That sounds Pollyanna'ish, I
>> know…can't help it.
>>
>> Anthony

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