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Subscribe to RSSZHENGZHOU, China -- In the eight years since Zhang Shuxiang first left her village in the poor interior of central China, she worked in 20 factories before coming to the assembly line of a Foxconn plant making products for tech firms including Apple. She wants it to be her last.
The 26-year-old has worked in factories making products as varied as coffee makers, jewelry and Apple's LED screens. Each time, she quit, blaming low wages and unreasonable supervisors, then joined another factory.
Reuters
In eight years, Zhang Shuxiang -- seen posing for a photograph at her home in Zhengzhou, China, on Wednesday -- has worked in 20 factories. She wants the Foxconn plant to be her last.
"Factory work is too tiring," she said when asked about life after Foxconn, which she plans to leave by June. "Since last year, I've kept on telling myself I would never want to enter a factory ever again, but I'm still doing it in spite of myself."
She embodies the shifting expectations and opportunities of tens of millions of young Chinese workers from the countryside who have turned their country into a workshop of the world.
Their changing attitudes pose a deep challenge for thousands of manufacturers, such as Foxconn and its big customer Apple, which have relied on what they once thought was a virtually endless stream of inexpensive, compliant workers.
Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou has pledged to keep on increasing worker salaries and cutting the hours of work, after it came under fire for poor working conditions for employees making Apple iPhones and iPads.
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Zhang now works on an assembly line for computer motherboards, in a factory inside a mammoth industrial complex on the outskirts of Zhengzhou, which Apple Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook visited in late March during a trip to China.
CNBC's Jon Fortt takes a closer look at the Foxconn violations noted by the Fair Labor Association.
Before finally deciding whether to quit, Zhang said she will wait to see what changes come from the agreement signed by Foxconn and Apple to improve working conditions.
Workers more aware of rights
Meeting the aspirations of Zhang and other migrant workers who power China's economy -- officially estimated at 159 million -- is crucial for the government. Younger, better educated and more tech-savvy, many migrant workers grew up as the sole children in their families and are less accepting than their parents were of tough working conditions.
They are also becoming more aware of their rights and of the widening growing range of available jobs, including services, that has come with rapid economic growth and which offer a way out of the relentless tedium of factory work.
Rev. Serene Jones, New York University law professor Cynthia Estlund, and Columbia University visiting scholar Obery Hendricks discuss the legacy left by Apple founder Steve Jobs and the controversy over the working conditions of his company's supplier, Foxconn.
"They are willing to take collective action, strikes, work stoppages, protests when they feel their rights have been violated or what they are owed has not been given to them," said Geoffrey Crothall, a spokesman for Hong Kong-based workers' rights group China Labor Bulletin.
"Workers know that if they stand their ground and ask for better pay and conditions, employers ... have to agree to some of their demands," he added.
Apple, supplier pledge to improve conditions
Duncan Innes-Ker, senior China analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit, said there is a "perfect storm of factors" coming together to support workers as they push for higher wages: sustained economic growth, government policy support for a higher minimum wage and demographics.
Joe Tan / Reuters, file
Employees eat their meal on a guardrail of a bridge near the Foxconn recruitment center in Shenzhen, Guangdong province in this Feb. 22 file photo.
The number of young Chinese workers aged 15-24 years of age will likely fall by a third in the next 12 years, giving more bargaining power to this younger blue-collar generation, Beijing-based consultancy Dragonomics has projected.
Advocates decry Foxconn treatment of student interns
The average monthly wage of China's migrant workers in 2011 rose 21.2 percent from 2010 to 2,049 yuan ($320), with wages higher in the more developed coastal areas like Guangdong. Even so, despite the recent increases, such wages are still many times lower than in Western developed economies.
On a recent afternoon outside a labor market in Zhengzhou, the provincial capital of Henan, a scattering of people were scrutinizing recruitment placards on a fence. Companies were looking for store managers, retail assistants and accountants. Some were offering salaries that range from 1,200 to 6,000 yuan.
'All menial work'
Xie Wen, 22, an unemployed former nurse, looked horrified when asked whether she was considering a job at a factory.
"It sounds good, but it's all menial work. If you want to earn a lot, you have to work a lot of overtime," she said, adding that she does not want her next job "to be too tough. I don't want any night shifts and I don't do overtime."
Her friend, Jin Jin, 27, who has been looking for work since she quit her job at a pharmacy a month ago, said she resigned because it was "meaningless" work. Since 2004, she has held four to five jobs and is now seeking one in sales that pays about 2,000 yuan, with about 4-6 days off a month, subsidized meals and overtime fees.
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Clad in a black blazer, jeans and pink sequined shoes, Dou Jing, 20, said she worked in the quality control department in an electronics factory for a year after high school.
"It was very tiring. I had to work night shifts that lasted 12 hours," Dou said. She later found a job as a receptionist for a small company, greeting guests and pouring tea for them.
"I didn't feel I could learn anything," she said, adding she wanted to learn some skills in her next job and open a shop.
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Walking through the crowd, a man surnamed Yang was trying to recruit telemarketers. He was distributing flyers that offered wages of 3,000 to 5,000 yuan a month, but not many people expressed interest.
"Workers are more choosy, they want a high salary, a job that's close to home and work that has very little responsibility," he said. "I think that's unrealistic."
Although the younger, more finicky cohort of migrant workers could pose a challenge for China's exporters, Innes-Ker said "we're still a long way away from the idea that foreign companies are moving out of China because it's too expensive."
"It's very difficult to find somewhere with the similar strengths of China," he said. "When it comes down to it, China has massive clusters that allow a very high degree of specialization to occur, and that helps to push down costs quite dramatically."
'Eat bitterness'
Zhang's elder brother, Zhang Junfeng, 30, who also works at Foxconn, said turnover is particularly rampant among younger factory workers, particularly those born in the 1990s.
"They'll resign the minute they get angry," Junfeng said. "Very few of them can eat bitterness."
Reuters
Zhang Junfeng (left), picks vegetables with his relatives at their home in Zhengzhou, Henan province Wednesday.
Eating bitterness is an expression used by Chinese who have endured decades of natural and man-made hardships throughout China's tumultuous history -- a term that also applies to Zhang's parents, who are both 61 and were farmers their whole lives.
On a recent afternoon, the pair sat in the courtyard of their home in Yezhang village, an hour's drive from Zhengzhou along several unpaved roads that cut through fields of wheat. They were picking through freshly harvested spinach from their fields to sell in Zhengzhou.
Zhang laughed when asked how her life is different from her parents, whose faces are brown and wrinkled from the sun. "At that time how can there be factories? That time, there were communes," she said.
China tells activist Ai Weiwei to turn off webcams
The round-faced Zhang, clad in a red tunic and black sweatpants, knows a thing or two about eating bitterness.
She was 18 when her mother paid a middleman 600 yuan to find her a factory job in Dongguan, a gritty city in Guangdong. When she arrived after a two-day rickety bus ride in 2004, she called home and cried to her mother after only a few days.
Unreasonable quotas?
In a Foxconn factory in Longhua in a suburb of Shenzhen, Zhang said she was hospitalized for two weeks in late 2011, blaming her supervisor for setting unreasonable quotas. She finally protested with her feet, quitting after about three months.
In one day, Zhang is required to paste 5,000 round dots by hand on a component for motherboards.
Yet even with the tedious work, Zhang says conditions at the Zhengzhou factory are better than at the previous Foxconn factories where she's worked. Her workday is about eight hours and she is given eight days off a month.
Foxconn pays her a base salary of 1,550 yuan a month, an increase from 1,320 yuan the year before, and extra for overtime duty. She lives four to a room in her dormitory, which she pays 150 yuan a month to rent and is Spartan with just two metal bunk beds and a desk.
Back at the Foxconn factory in Shenzhen where Zhang worked in 2010, workers on the assembly line were banned from talking to one another and taking toilet breaks that exceed 10 minutes, according to Zhang.
"At that time, that made me think of the phrase: 'We're humans, we're not machines'," she said.
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US company CEOs are predatory 5cum and ought to be held accountable for their business model which involves the mistreatment of workers who make THEIR products.
The USA business community has exported slavery circa 2012 while we have high unemployment.
Ask Japan how they treated their workers back in the 1950's when EVERYTHING was tagged Made In Japan. You knew it was crappy because it was made in Japan. Now it has shifted to China. THIS has been going on for awhile. I bet ALL the way back to the beginning of time - cheaper workers to make the product cheaper to begin with. With the advent of the internet we are now just 'beginning' to pay attention. They are just starting to see the light. So they WANT a better life - WORK FOR IT! Don't just whine about it and blame it on someone else. Ask her parents what a hard life is - they are farmers. THAT is a hard life.
'circa 2012': Really? How old are you?
Yep...and in 20 years, China will be where Japan is today - with good average wages and benefits. (and the low end manufacturing will have moved to other countries)
I'm thinking Mexico. In 20 years they are REALLY going to be needing help.
Reminds me of when the "sweatshops" in Honduras were exposed and Kathie Lee Gifford got drug into the mess in the 1990s. The law of unintended consequences of the actions of labor group that got all the bleeding hearts ginned up was the jobs, that paid $.25 an hour, eventually went away. Ask an uneducated peasant in Honduras what would be better, getting paid $.25 an hour for a job or not getting paid anything for nothing? The bleeders are so stupid that they think that $.25 a hour are slave wages because they can't imagine getting paid that or even doing manual labor to begin with. The reality is that the cost of living is so low that $.25 an hour really isn't that bad considering the peasant has no marketable skills other than maybe farming. A far sight better than starving.
Hate to say it, but as long as consumers love cheap stuff, cheap labor will be sought out. I'm sorry things aren't better for these people, but like someone said about Japan in an earlier comment, countries have a way of coming around over time, some just lag behind others. The U.S. was once full of factories with people working for menial wages, but I'd say for all of our griping about things not being better we have it pretty good these days.
I find this very amusing. I have watched these American CEOs and managers of companies up close and personal while they took jobs from Americans and gave them to anyone that would work for a penny less and an hour longer while not caring about the quality of the product or the affect on America.
Thank-you Chinese workers for declaring your independence from your corporate slave masters.
The ultimate responsibility rests with Americans demanding things made in the USA, even if it costs a few pennies more. I pay more for recycled paper because it is the right thing to do and supports a necessary marketplace.
If Americans are so selfish with their paycheck by demanding products unrealistically cheap, then they deserve the demise of manufacturing here. You reap what you sow.
Narcissism, elitism, indifference to the plight of others. The reality of this sowing is a trampling of others within society to save themselves. Often the last to reap.
The capitalists will use the workers as replaceable cogs in their money making machine and then claim that they are doing the workers a favor by exploiting them. This has been going on for a long time.
I love how the media keep associating Foxconn specifically with Apple when they actually supply electronics to basically every major technology company.
Man tough conditions, sorry to hear it, now hurry up and finish my new Motherboard!
I beg to differ. China is exploiting their citizens.......that is what a communist country does. The US businesses are not doing anything illegal...but making a profit and keeping prices down. We owe CHina citizens nothing....now with that said I personally think it is a moral compass that one must have to treat people with respect and human.
I bet stock holders and CEO's are going to be pissed, in a few years they will have to look to another country that will let them treat their people like slaves so they can make money.
Nah.....the stock holders and the CEO won't care. If the costs increase globally, then the prices will increase to make up the difference. It doesn't hurt them at all. Consumers will pay a little more.
Foxconn did try to relocate some of the manufacturing to Brazil, to be closer to the North American market, without success.
China offers not just cheap labour, but also cheaper, educated labours, as well as ease of transportation, government support, land, ease of obtaining permits, etc. Foxconn had to abandent Brazil after 1.5 years of negotiation with the Brazian government.
PutAmericaFirst - Are you going to pay for $1000 iPhones and $4000 Mac computers? Even with inflation, not as many people will be able to afford Mac products, so you're wrong. CEO and stockholders will care. Also, Apple stock has reached its height. The company can't sustain itself.... Besides, there are way better products out there than Macs, but apparently, once you go Mac, you never go back =/ which is such a shame because its just not affordable and there are companies with better ethics to support.
The next place will be Africa. It would seem that Chinese corps amoung others are buying up land there and building factories there aside from getting into the usual minerals etc.
There are many foreign news channels that actually broadcast in english while some do subtitles. They do present many programs that show discussions on various things happening in many other countries, and oftentimes give an alternate point of view.
There are many programs from many other countries around the globe that gives the viewer an insite to those countries their culture, language, work, worship, social issues, news etc. They even report what is happening in the USA too. :)
One should not forget to view our own PBS channels as they also have discussions and doccumentaries on various topics and issues here at home and abroad.
Perhaps instead of scrolling past these channels, one should take a gander and see what they and other people around the globe are saying or what they are discussing..... One might even learn something and give a better understanding of other countries and their peoples, as well as to how the USA is viewed by those abroad.
Their movies are very good and fun too. While quite a few of these movies are subtitled in English, and some do have English spoken and some do not, yet sometimes one can still get the gist of what is happening even without understanding the language.
From the various posts it appears the some folks are suddenly coming to the realization that not all factory workers are happy with their lot in these countries.
To those who think that .25 cents per hour is a good salary for these folks, should realize that it is not, as it simply keep these folks in poverty as they too have to contend with the cost of living in those countries too. That is why some have to live in dorms because of the cost of housing. The products they make are sold for way more than a few dollars per item, as some are actually sold for hundreds and thousands of dollars in other 1st world countries.
Many of the people are educated too even if they are from the countryside. Their parents also want their children to have a better life than they did or have, just like many parents here in the USA want for their children.
How many of these factory workers making those ipads etc can afford to purchase one?
Peace.....
kimposibl. You are wrong about the prices you state. Get your facts before you spout off about things you obviously know nothing about.
For all of you that worship at the feet of Jobs, this so called visionary had no problem with slave labor and the misery that it creates. Its no wonder Apple is the richest company in the world when they treat their manufacturers like dogs.
This is China's problem. THIS is how they treat THEIR workers.
What a silly shortsighted response - Apple could make these changes overnight if they really wanted to by either demanding Foxconn do the right thing or they pull up stakes and go elsewhere, simple as that. But they choose not to, and why? Because it would hurt their over-bloated profit margin.
So we go over to China and DEMAND they change the conditions? Try rethinking that statement. China DOES NOT work on OUR schedule. Nor do they follow OUR rules. Someone comes into YOUR house and does not like how YOU run YOUR house. Can you change THEIR rules? Good luck with that.
CT...you realize that you're posting your comment on a computer that was likely made at Foxconn, right? Foxconn makes computers for all of the big name brands. Also, if you read other quotes from workers during this ordeal, many are upset that Americans are stepping in and demanding that they work less because it is taking money out of their pockets from the lost overtime. They aren't able to provide as well for their families as a result of someone halfway around the world.
Texas,
I wouldn't try and tell another country how to treat their citizens, but I do favor changing trade policies so they give US manufacturers a chance. For example, if a company wants to sell here, I think we should require x% of the manufacturing labor expenses be incurred in this country (just like other countries do for US goods).
Ever shop for the lowest price? Guess how that low price is achieved, somewhere, in a country far, far, away a worker is making next to nothing so you can get a bargain. If we want to rail against companies and countries that exploit their people for the sake of maximizing profits we must also accept our role as "savvy consumers". Don't like to see people abused for profit? Then stop buying low priced products and pay much higher prices.
Those in our country with visions of a "global economy" fail to disclose that the only way we can achieve this goal is by rolling wages back in those countries with decent living conditions while countries like China increase theirs. Somewhere there is a middle ground where wages will be equalized on a global scale.
I believe this is why our middle class is suffering right now, it is also why we are hearing more and more complaining about the wages and benefits of government and union workers. In order to achieve a work force whose pay is competitive in a "global economy" we must gut wages, benefits, retirement programs, decent working hours, decent working conditions, holidays and weekends off must become rare instead of expected. Lowered expectations take time to become "normal" the heads of giant conglomerates are patient, a generation or two is all it will take for people to forget or fail to understand what has been lost.
Low prices = low wages = exploitation.
Bargain basement prices + savvy consumers = exported manufacturing = erosion of the middle class = support for exploited populations around the world.
I thought, mistakenly, that our mission as leaders of the world was to help other countries rise to our level. It seems that somewhere along the line that mission became more about lowering our standards than raising standards elsewhere.
Too bad, because I think that mission was the very heart and soul of "The American Dream".
Consumers love cheap stuff and will buy accordingly. It is ridiculous to think that a U.S. company can dictate how another company in another country treats their workers after they've sought them out for their cheap labor. The only way to ensure that workers get treated well is by letting the manufacturers pine for your business and create a work environment that suits your beliefs, but then that would mean big companies spending more on labor and (gasp!) quality! Somehow the Europeans do things pretty well; they manufacture their own cars for the most part, they live well without hoarding excess crap, and they generally have good working conditions. Though, everyone should remember that this was centuries in the making...
I never thought Steve Jobs was someone to be idolized and am very confused by people who have elevated him to a God-like position. I don't like the iThingies either.
Apple has made freedom a thing of the past. Every move you make is trackable by everyone with those enslaving iThingie entrapments.
I don't need Apple products and don't want them. This company is bent on enslaving mankind and carrying one of those iThingies is enabling slavery, oppression and 1984 big brother scenarios. Keep those iThingies away from me.
Steve Jobs is nothing but a corporate slave master and iThingies are his ball and chain.
This is either highbrow satire ...which speaks very well of you. Or, it's the complete opposite?
Anyone using "highbrow satire" can not be spoken well of. I am an intellectual but not a snob and I do not hold human vices up for scorn, derision and ridicule. I am more likely to be sympathetic to the human condition.
That said, I have worked inside corporate walls for 32 years. I know what goes on behind closed doors in the boardroom and elevators when the CEO is too good to speak to what HE considers HIS low life workers.
Right, but the difference is, those big name brands don't overcharge! A Mac product, which costs like $5 dollars to make, Apple is putting a 100000% profit in their pockets! At least other companies aren't greedy. Its not necessarily the slavery that people are complaining about... its the pure greed. Apple is the embodiment of corporate America. When I tell people who LOVE Apple about the slavery in Foxconn and how Apple is stealing their money, they just shrug. They think Apple products are all that, but come on, they buy most of their parts from other companies and buy out other companies so that they don't have to do any real work! Apple fans are the biggest pain in my @$$. Blind to everything.
"Baa" says the Jobs sheep.
Really?
Your post "used" a reference to George Orwell's master work of Juvenalian satire, 1984. Does that mean you "cannot be spoken well of"?
On the contrary.
When you direct scorn, derision and ridicule at Apple and Mr. Jobs...you're also directing it at the humans who use those dreaded "iThingies"....and (according to you) promote the "enslavement of mankind" as a result.
Neither satire...nor enslavement... nor "iThingies" exist in a vacuum.
Wow her life is hard. Tough cookies. Have her ask her parents if Life is hard - they're farmers! She wants a better life handed to her. Good Luck with that. Another spoiled 'I want a better life' without having to work for it.
She and other younger Chinese workers are no different than young Americn workers, are they? These people aren't "whining." They are better educated than their parents and have become aware of workers' rights which have been violated by their employers. They have become aware of how human beings should be treated, rather than mistreated.
Kinda sounds like one who was born into the soft life. Mommy & Daddy paid for college education which means I "earned" my high wage job and easy living.
China is a COMMUNIST country. Employers or Corporations or Employees are not free willed. The government tells them how to act, how much they can make and how much of their profit they can keep. The government receives a piece of everything. There is government employee in every factory China making sure they get half.
Until that is changed, these people, these companies, you or I will not be able to do a damn thing about it, EXCEPT to stop buying from them.
Which is basically impossible.
Kind of funny how these young Chinese workers sound like so many of our young American workers. "I don't do overtime, my work should be meaningful, I want high wages, the work shouldn't tire me, don't make it too physically demanding, etc., etc." Meanwhile, they don't have any formal education or an education related to the job, don't have experience and basically don't have anything to offer the company other than performing the entry level job. While we view these jobs as slave labor, I would like to know how their wages compare to farm jobs, and to their cost of living. It probably isn't much different than entry level jobs in this country that pay minimum wage. Is it fair? No, it isn't, but that's capitalism. Sure, China is communist, but these factories are operating very much in a capitalistic environment.
No they don't have any of those things but they have something else, They are Millennials. They are a born in the 1980s - 1990s. Those things you mention they don't have are are only valuable to a slave seeking CEO trying to increase their next bonus and probably not so important to a Millennial trying to make the world a better place.
Just being a Millennial is by far better than any of those things you are mentioning that only a CEO could love.
The Millennials are a unique cultural phenomena. They don't think the same way us Boomers or the X Generation think. I am pretty sure they are much smarter.
The Millennials have always had a computer. Their fingers fly over the keyboard in a way that mine can not match even though I have typed for decades.
Millennials have never shot a gun but when they first go to the shooting range, they can hit bulls-eye almost everytime because they have grown up shooting at everything on computers.
When you put a Millennial in a plane, they know how to fly it because airplane computer games showed them how.
Millennials do not automatically believe they they have to work their fingers to the bone to survive. They have computers and have always had them. Computers make things easier. Us older folks think that the choices Millennials have are to work at McDonalds or dig ditches. Not so. A Millennial does not need a college degree to learn what keyboard buttons to push when a computer error happens, they already know in ways even IT pros can admire.
The Millennials will be reshaping the world into a better place, long after we are dead and buried. If you can and dare span the generation gap, you will find them smart and charming and you will know the future is in good hands.
BTW - Farming is a way better way of life than factory work or computer work having lived through them all.
Where else but on a farm can you have chipmunk friends running to greet you and deer every morning in the front yard, peaches from the orchard, fresh buffalo meat from the rancher down the road and organic eggs in the chicken nest?
Be careful who you are verbally downsizing. You run the risk to go hungry if there are no farmers left.
She's tired after working eight whole years? Excuse me if I don't fall down weeping at her plight. Well done MSNBC to find the perfect example with which to further propagandize your typical liberal-slacker audience.
Yeah working for 300 dollars a month, not allowed to speak while working, not allowed to go to the bathroom, living in a factory dorm room with 4 metal bunks and one desk................that's a good life?
Funny how wingnuts scream liberal slacker audience.
When is the last time you worked under those conditions, a whopping 300 bucks a month and four people living in a proverbial closet.
How many of your employers rather then improving working conditions simply put nets on the walls of the buildings to catch people who were trying commit suicide because of the wonderful lives they now have being the slave workforce for the likes of Apple, HP, Dell........................
Bruce.....of course those conditions are better than the alternatives in China. The girl's mom was willing to pay nearly a half month's salary to send her to the factories so she could have a better life. Don't criticize a "good" life for them because you have a better one.
Pay a little more attention. 8 years of long hours, poor working conditions, little time off, being disrespected, bullied by supervision, and high production rates.
And I guess liberal-slackers are those that do not allow themselves to be slaves? I want to be one of those. Where do I sign up?
One point I think this article is missing is, the life of the average Chinese person is slowly getting better. Yes, there are tons of worker abuses that they need to work on, but remember how far China has come in the last few decades. The fact that young workers now feel secure enough to voice discontent is a huge step forward for China.
By the way, I am not in any way advocating slave labor practices. I'm just pointing out that the working and living conditions they have now are significantly better than most had 30 years ago, and I expect this standard of living increase will only accelerate as they continue to develop their economy.
No you are slaves. Your government sold you to clients of US corporations. You allow American corporations to maximize profits. If you complain or demand too much money they will find slaves in other countries. They may even drive the standard of living in the US down enough to move the work back there. Now shut up and get back to work
Rev...thats not entirely true. You blame US corporations??? Put the blame on the US Consumer that wants cheaper prices. The corps are just trying to provide what the consumers here demand. Wal-Mart is another perfect example of this.
Real live man,
Yep...ultimately the US consumers are the problem...if we change our buying habits, companies will change how they do business. But, right now, we are effectively telling companies the main thing we really care about is price - which means companies are doing whatever they can to lower their production costs.
We want cheaper prices because our wages are stagnant. If we kept all of our manufacturing in America we would be able to afford what we produced.
What we need to do is change the tax, regulatory, and trade policies to make manufacturing in the US profitable. Until that happens, jobs are going to continue to move overseas. Most consumers will buy primarily based on price - that's the case now, and it was the case when we had the "good life" for a couple decades after WWII.
Saying we want manufacturing in the US isn't enough. Any company with global competitors that takes the moral high-ground and decides to pay the increased cost to manufacture in the US, will ultimately fail unless we change the rules.
Yeah I'm a fan of Clinton. But NAFTA was an awful idea. First thing we need to do is end it and shoot up import costs that make imports more expensive. Then we will start manufacturing here again and wages will go up and unemployment will go down and we can afford our own products.
Right around NAFTA time is where things started to go downhill for Americans.
Reallifeman. Walmart has more American made products in their stores than Target. They also have a lot of products from Mexico. Target has mostly products from china and vietnam. Over 58,000 Americans died in vietnam fighting communism in a war that was backed by communist china and russia, and now we support these damn countries. Wake up America. Build American ~ Buy American ~ Be American.
$320/ month is slightly below what some McDonalds workers make in the U.S. Think about that the next time you eat at McDonalds, etc. Of course neither situation is good. Workers everywhere need to be treated with dignity and respect, whether it's Foxconn or Walmart. Zhang mentioned she worked in a factory assembling coffee makers. That would be the $8 models found in Walmart and other junk stores. Big American retailers are part of the slave labor mentality in China. Until we change things in our country, improvements will be slow in China. I purchased a $15 Sunbeam iron in Walmart and it lasted about 2 years. I bought that brand because my mother had a Sunbeam iron which had been in use for over 35 years with no problems (replaced the cord once). That was made in the USA with good materials. It was likely purchased at Sears because that's where mother did most of her shopping. I purchased a small Sunbeam refrigerator for my son to use in his temporary quarters. That didn't make it two years. The warranty was of no value, as the company who had bought the licensing rights to use the Sunbeam name on their products was in bankruptcy (caused by too many warranty claims). Many of the good brand names previously headquartered in the U.S. are now being "licensed" to unknown companies who then seek out cheap products on which to place the licensed brand name. Nothing in retail is what it appears to be. Magnavox used to have a TV manufacturing plant 100 miles from my home. That closed long ago and the name is now on "made in China" crap. Even the RCA brand is "licensed" to others. We American consumers are pawns in the retail trade. Chinese workers are slaves in factories like Foxconn. Foxconn is not the only slave labor company.
The minimum wage in the US is $7.25/hour. At 40 hours/week and 4 weeks/month, that's $1,160/month. This is considerably more than the $320/month in China.
$320 is not the same as a McDonalds worker here in America makes that would be $2 an hour working 40 hours a week, so you are way off!
In reality, the retail trade is the pawn of the US consumer. As long as US consumers only care about the low costs and saving a small amount of money, the retail trade will continue to search for the least expensive way to do business to survive.
Ron and Peter... you might consider that the cost of living in China is about 1/3 of the US cost of living and they have free education and medical care.
Second, MacDonalds workers don't often work a full 40 hours/week. The franchises keep mostly part-time workers to minimize costs. So take the 40 hours per week and cut it down to 20-30.
So comparatively, BW is not far off.
But, if someone is working part-time at McDonald's, then they have time to take a second part-time job. In the end, I think using 40 hours/week as a baseline is appropriate.
Please, please don't make the Millennials work there.
McDonalds food has been poisoning humanity and contributing to obsesity since it opened when I was a youngster.
McDonalds needs to disappear from the face of the planet to be of any benefit to humanity and our future generations.
WireTap, why stop there? Let's get rid of Jack in the Box, Burger King, Wendy's, Sonic, Carl Jr.'s, Taco Bell, White Castle, and pretty much all the pizza chains out there. They can all be Subway sandwich shops.
After that, let's eliminate the Valentine's Day, Easter and Halloween holidays to cut down on consumption of chocolate and other candies. (We can keep Easter if you can eliminate the tasty caramel eggs I just bought on sale at the grocery store)
Wait, grocery stores... Let's just make this one easy and make everything a Whole Foods forcing you to spend twice as much for the healthier version of what you were going to buy earlier.
Vote with your wallet. If you want to support a healthier lifestyle, great, but don't force others to abide by your standards. The trans fats bans make me laugh because lawmakers are working hard to try to legislate this very thing instead of letting the market decide what succeeds/fails.
Back on topic - David hit it. Everyone I've known who works as an adult for minimum wage works at least 40 hours a week, if not more. Companies in the service and retail industries like to keep people under the number of hours (19 I think, feel free to correct me) where they have to provide things like medical/401ks, etc. Perfect for a kid working from 3-7 for high school date money (which you typically see at one of the restaurants mentioned above, and always makes me smile a little), not great for an adult with bills to pay.
Well, well, well. Looks like China has finally arrived at the turn of the 20th Century. That sentence sounds a lot like conditions in America way back when. Pretty soon, someone will want to start a worker's union. "But isn't China already one, huge, union called Communism?" No. Not when you're really a Capitalist nation disguised as Communist!
So keep pushing for the higher wages, better benefits and better working conditions. Then we'll ALL be working on the same playing field and perhaps U.S. corporations will decide to move the jobs back here.
One can only Hope things will Change.
This is the pattern. Move operations to a poor economic country. Bless them (/s) with jobs and pay them a nickle an hour. I mean nickles are better than dirt, so I might as well work.
Overtime, pretty slowly working conditions will have to improve. That nickle doesn't look so good so it becomes a dime, very slowly a quarter but that's when it's time to reconsider if there are any other poorer countries and what the cost of moving operations will be. Eventually leave these empty factories and move to another poor country that thinks a nickle is better than dirt. Over and over.
Don't worry they are not Americans so we don't have to care about them.
I think every person is equal to us. Slavery has always been collecting a group of people who are at an economic disadvantage and exploiting them as much as possible.
People are people and pretty much once we reach one level of security we strive for the next level of security. But once our striving becomes too much for our owners that we are starting to find equality they can look for a new crop to exploit. I think it's evil but I see the cycle and I see how a group of the economically disadvantage would find this exploiting as an opportunity. But only for so long.
All this article is really showing me is that China's economy must be good enough where people can quite their jobs for another.
Yeah who cares about corporations providing jobs that treat people like human beings right Nate? As long as you get your Ipod.
Peter...I like your holier than thou attitude...I guess your going to juke your computer that you are on right now in protest since your such a caring person.
Hey Peter, Take an inventory of what you have. China China everywhere.
It's nice to know that as a country we have completely lost our moral compass and now pretend it is cool to not care about what is right or wrong. what ever happened to treating others as you would like to be treated ? Oh thats right MTV taught us to not care it's the age of selfishness!
My opinion of people of China just improved by 1000%. I think it's easy for us to overlook the profundity of a statement like "I'm human, not a machine" coming from a woman who knows very little about freedom. If these ideas spread, Chinese everywhere will start refusing to "eat bitterness." GOOD FOR THEM. It's time for the Chinese government to eat....um....I guess I'll say BITTERNESS.
I guess they already have communism/socialism, so if they revolt, they will move towards capitalism.
I see a lot of people complaining about Apple and US ceo's. Why? This is a Chinese company that Apple happens to subcontract through. I also find it a little sad that these manufacturing jobs are so much better than the alternatives that her mom was willing to pay almost a half month's wages to get her those jobs.
These jobs went overseas because the people at home are a lot wiser and demand a living wage- so the greedy corporations go overseas to enslave people to make the same products- to sell back home to people who now make less than a living wage and can't afford the products. Who's enslaved now?
What they need are Unions so they can demand high wages, and outrageous benefits and pensions. Then they can be happy and lazy for the next decade until manufacturing jobs are run out of China and a half billion people are unemployed.
I see that you enjoy the corporate lool-aid.
Lazy? US autoworkers are 4x as productive as their Chinese counterparts. We've seen benefits slashed and wages frozen. Yeah, I've seen the 5% that fit the stereotype. Wonder why no one notices the other 95% that show up for work when scheduled, sober, and try to produce a quality vehicle. Every vehicle going out the door has my name on it ......... most of the problems leading to recalls can all be traced to out sourced, poor quality parts picked by MANAGEMENT over domestically produced.
Odd, though, when you think about it. The countries with the highest standards of living all have Unions. Paid holidays, vacations, assorted benefits, 8 hour work days, 40 hour weeks......all the result of the Labor movement. I'm sure that YOUR employer will gladdly stop offending you with these Union tainted benefits ...... if you can "man up" and tell him YOU don't want them.
wow, you sound like such the capitalist, gringo, right wing idiot that believes that corporations are really fighting for the common good!
There are 230,000 workers at the Foxconn plant that makes iPads and many thousands more who want to work there. You cannot compare the standard of living in the U.S. with the standard of living in China. We had jobs similar to these as we industrialized.
Anyone who does not see the wrongness in this is simply evil,,,,Modern day slavery in action from the same corps. that took jobs away from US citizens!!!!
No it is not. First, it isn't even the same companies. Second, these wages are much better than the current wages at other occupations in China. It would be like someone else complaining the workers in a GM manufacturing plant are being treated like slaves, when there are hundreds of thousands willing to work there. I know it is difficult to grasp, but the people in these factories have a better life than those who are no able to work there.
Has China any say at all? The chinese are not forced to work at all. The workers choose to say. Also can other countries says our products are very expensive and demand lower pay for American employees? ( Hoping American products would be cheaper) If US protesters are that upset they should go to china and work for a month giving the local workers a break.
It is good to see the people of China are getting the opportunities to better themselves and pull themselves out of absolute poverty and make a better life for their children. These companies are allowing that to happen.
It's good to see some free talk coming from China. People should remember that all prospering nations have been about where China is now with their workshops. The U.S. started with agriculture, then heavy industry, and has moved to service, much like Japan did more recently (although on an accelerated timetable thanks to their work ethic and the war reparations). As I've said in previous comments, as long as consumers love cheap stuff then companies will seek cheap labor wherever it can be found. Hey, I can think of a few countries whose populations would love to have these jobs such as North Korea, Laos, Burma...
don't we have robots that can do repetitive tasks?
And so ends cheap labor in China. No companies will outsource to where? Cambodia? Vietnam?
Pasting dots on a motherboard all day? Sounds like a dream job to me (minus the bad salary). I'd take it if it meant not having to deal with a-hole customers all day.
1550 yuan a month, that's about $250 and you live in company housing which you pay for. Talk about selling you soul to the company store.
Your right your not a robot your a slave.
I tried factory work years ago and quickly realized the if I were to continue with that type of a job I would have to get a lobotomy or worse.
I hope there is greater opportunity for the people of China to get higher educations and pursue greater things.