People often ask me if things have improved. It’s hard to say. There are still rigorous rules and restrictions. Foxconn workers are allowed only a few minutes for toilet breaks and are barely permitted to talk to their colleagues. To keep the production line running, they have to work 12-hour shifts, leaving hardly any time to use amenities at the plant...
Compared with their predecessors, the new generation of workers are better educated; they are more worldly, savvy with the Internet, and have higher expectations from life. These workers, more aware of their rights, are no longer willing to be treated like machines. It was not entirely accidental that the Honda strikes took place when the spate of suicides at Foxconn sent shock waves across the factory floors in China.
As someone who have endured the demoralizing existence at a factory, I know how these protesting workers feel. Their motivation may be economical, but in a broad sense, they are also demanding to be respected as human beings.More comments at the New York Times
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Zhang Lijia is a speaker at the China Speakers Bureau. When you need her at your conference or meeting, do get in touch.
1 comment:
The experiences of Chinese workers are no different from workers everywhere when the country is at the initial stage of economic development.
It is really up to the authorities to protect their countrymen who are for the moment left to the machinations of their employers.
Whilst business owners and I am referring particularly to MNCs from outside China, make huge profits from the low wages of Chinese workers, they would soon come to realise that things cannot continue for too long. Cost of living is rising and more so aspirations of workers who want a better life for themselves. When workers become more educated and more skills, one cannot expect them to accept a low level of economic existence.
Whilst strikes are extreme expressions of frustrations, finally it is up to the authorities to appreciate citizens' aspirations and legislate to allow workers the right to make suitable progress. Businesses would conform provided they are still comparatively profitable, albeit less profitable.
Chinese workers like workers anywhere is entitled to a good standard of living and the progress of a nation is measured by the uplifting of people's lives. Reaching the standard of the West may be still some way for the average Chinese, but every Chinese must strive for it in his or her own way.
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