Newsletter No. 26
JANUARY 2005
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China — workers move against low wages, long hours Many in the West enjoy a range of relatively cheap consumer goods — toys, sports gear, shoes, clothing, homeware, furniture, electronics etc — made by Chinese workers. China’s factory workers have been the backbone of the country’s amazing growth over two decades, providing an overwhelming comparative advantage of cheap labour to feed China’s manufacturing base In a seeming irony, the workers of Communist China have undercut the labour costs, not only of workers in industrialized countries, but also of many developing countries. This has enabled China to attract investment from Europe, USA and Asia, to create a booming export economy, with production concentrated in special economic zones dominated by foreign firms. Why labour is cheap in China A number of factors have contributed to cheap labour in China: * Low agricultural incomes and restructuring forced many to seek work in the cities; * closure of state-owned enterprises forced many millions into the labour pool; and * low levels of education provided plenty of factory fodder. This has allowed foreign buyers, often global conglomerates, to squeeze factory owners to bid for orders at the lowest possible price. On top of this, the subservience of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) to the Chinese government’s national development goals and the illegality of establishing independent unions has left workers in a very vulnerable situation despite relatively enlightened labour laws, that are nevertheless routinely violated. However, these ‘advantages’ are disappearing as workers reject the conditions they work under and: * rural incomes start to climb; * young people become better educated and not so willing to enter sweatshops; * the one-child policy has led to a shortage of young women, considered the ideal factory fodder; * manufacturing wages stagnate (reflecting labour’s weak bargaining position) so workers start to look elsewhere for jobs. (‘Workers reject the factory life’ AFR 6.10.04) Conditions in China’s factories ‘Workers have to give up their rights to keep their jobs’ says a 20-year old worker in Guangdong. ‘In our factory the boss is ruler’ says another. Average wages in export zones are between $95-$110 a month for a working week of 60 to more than 80 hours. Pay is often held in arrears so workers do not switch jobs. They live in company dormitories and eat at company cafeterias, often returning a third of their wage to their employer. Factories are often hot & unhealthy Occupational diseases and injuries are rife. Most have no health cover. Police harass many migrant workers and arrest labour protesters (‘Wages of fun’ SMH 30-31.10.04). Reports of death through overwork are common (e.g., China: 12 hour day kills female factory worker in Nanjing 12.11.04 http://www.asianlabour.org). Workers ‘shed passivity’ In a situation where unions are not present, or a part of management, workers throughout China are starting to take ‘unauthorised’ action at an unprecedented rate. A new wave of privatization, with more than 190,000 state firms being sold to private overseas investors, also stirs this discontent (‘China Resources workers on strike: labour unrest mounts’ China Labour Bulletin 26.10.04). ‘Signs of newly assertive Chinese workers have jolted foreign and Chinese factory owners .. some conclude 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 outsourcing’ (‘Workers in China shed passivity’ Washington Post 27.11.04). Workers are frustrated at having no place to turn with complaints about overtime, wage levels or conditions. No lines of communication means the only outlets for dissatisfaction are walkouts and confrontation. Formal labour groups are not organizing the protests, which signal ‘docility among migrant workers (that is, from the Chinese countryside) can be no longer taken for granted’ (WP). A lawyer for workers arrested in a recent violent demonstration compared their lot to that of pre-communist Chinese labourers exploited by capitalists under a US-backed Nationalist government. The main difference, he said was ‘that in those days the Communist Party stood along-side the workers.. whereas today the CP is fighting shoulder to shoulder with the cold-blooded capitalist in their struggle against the workers’ (WP 27.11). The ACFTU seeks a role The ACFTU is desperately trying to salve the situation. Finding less than 10 per cent of 500,000 foreign-funded firms have trade unions, it has issued a reminder that workers have a right to participate in and organise trade unions ‘in accordance with the law’ (that is, via the ACFTU) and firms that prevent unions can be sued. The problem is, neither employers nor workers see the ACFTU as representing labour. Its affiliates are like company unions, with the union head also a manager and often a local government official as well! A real conflict of interest arises when local government or local Communist officials are major shareholders in firms or rely on them for revenue. The ACFTU sees the union role as ‘protect(ing) the legal rights & interests of labour to promote the further development of the enterprise’ and to ‘supervise & coordinate labour relations, directly dissolving friction between management and the workforce’ (Coming to terms with unions http://www.bjreview.com.cn/ 10.12.04). A mild critic suggests unions are mere appendices to companies and cannot function, until they abandon their dual ‘basic’ role (protecting rights and coordinating labour-management relations) to focus solely on protecting workers’ rights. (‘The union should be more than a company decoration’ China Youth Daily 26.11.04). China may soon be the world’s biggest economy. If Chinese workers can freely organise to improve their conditions, it may blossom into a social democracy. Otherwise, a growing comprador class will deliver them to imperialism. Either path will profoundly affect the global balance between labour and capital, thus humanity’s general fate. Workers around the world confront the same gigantic corporations, as workers or consumers, as Chinese workers do. Together, they can put an end to their common exploitation. |