On the occasion of the publication in the journal Movement Exchanges and a brochure China
landed in the EU: Chinese Investments and operating conditions for production "Made in
Europe" (1) a discussion of the struggles Chinese workers was recently held in Paris. It
was introduced by Ralf, who teaches Chinese for ten years and lives to a great extent in
China. ---- Ralf is part of a small network of European, American and Chinese whose main
activity is to meet the people there, and then put on the Internet
(http://www.gongchao.org ) the results of their investigations ( through texts mostly in
English) and translate Chinese books. But they also do the opposite, providing Chinese
translation of information on workers' struggles around the world - a choice justified by
their belief that the struggles in China have a crucial impact on the world situation.
His intervention consists of three parts: first, a look at Foxconn, then a more general
presentation of current struggles in China and the reactions of the State and bosses, and
finally an overview of the penetration of Chinese capital in Europe East (eg Foxconn has
production sites in the Czech Republic and Slovakia). He concluded his presentation on a
strike that took place in a Chinese factory in Poland.
Foxconn
Our starting point is the sad situation of 2010, when dozens of employees at Foxconn
committed suicide by jumping from high buildings. Faced with this resistance of despair,
political activists begin an investigation into the conditions under which the company
will result in a book iSlaves Pun Ngai. My presentation is based largely on this item (not
translated into French).
Foxconn has recently become the largest in the world by number of employees Industry
group: 1.5 million, including 1.4 million in China. Some sites have a workforce of more
than 100,000. It is estimated that Foxconn manufactures 40-50% of all consumer electronics
products in the world and 40% of its production is for Apple. Foxconn also has plants in
Brazil, the Czech Republic. This is however a little known name as the group does not sell
products under its own label. This is the contract manufacturing, outsourcing system that
has existed for forty or fifty years, also in the textile and footwear, which is practiced
throughout Asia, Latin America and Eastern Europe. On conditions in Chinese factories
group is essentially the line work extremely Taylorized, consisting of simple, repetitive
tasks. This is shift work, with two teams working noon to turn. A distinctive feature is
that the workers are controlled and monitored constantly and see impose sanctions, usually
fines, when they fail to keep pace. Almost all are migrants from other regions and most
are between sixteen and twenty-five years. Indeed, older workers are so worn (visual or
muscular problems) they are returning or leave themselves. Surprisingly, men represent 60%
of the workforce. Traditionally, most workers in the electronics sector are women, but the
shortage of labor which develops from a decade eventually push Foxconn to recruit more
men. Remuneration depends on the region, but range between 160 and 280 euros per month.
The work in these factories can be dangerous, and accidents and occupational diseases
abound. Like other Chinese companies, Foxconn does his best to avoid paying compensation
for accidents and diseases. And like their European counterparts, Chinese companies
seeking to divide workers into distinct groups. Foxconn uses student interns, hiring eg
whole class technical school. It's supposed to be a trainer, but in reality trainees
perform the same work as the rest of the staff. Due to the current shortage of labor, the
state supports this practice.
Most Foxconn workers are housed in dormitories, usually located on the same grounds of the
factory or just beyond. The dorm is a kind of extension of the factory, where management
can go at any time to ask workers to work overtime. Another purpose of the system
dormitories are prohibited Chinese migrants to settle permanently in the city. As South
Africans under apartheid workers or migrant workers in Europe, they have a temporary visa
and need a work permit. Losing a job is lost at the same time his work permit and housing.
Again, state and capital work together to ensure that workers remain usable. On the one
hand, it enables companies to charge very low wages - workers do not need a big budget for
housing and food (there are canteens) - and the park as a breeding pigs. On the other
hand, social reproduction is outsourced, as children and the elderly remain in the
village. It is therefore a reproducing mode cheaper.
Chinese workers obviously are struggling to find adequate forms of struggle, but, like
their counterparts around the world, they succeed. There are three major forms of
resistance. 1) Many workers simply resign. If this is the least effective form of
struggle, it should however be noted that some sites Foxconn experiences an annual
turnover of 100% of their workforce. Finding work is not currently a major problem for
workers, given the shortage of labor. 2) There are daily resistance, such as beaded strike
or sabotage, which are of great importance. Contrary to popular belief that courses abroad
on disciplined behavior and subjected workers - and especially workers - in China, they
are lots of ways to curb the production and gain a little dignity. 3) Finally, and most
interestingly, it is the collective struggles as strikes or riots. We do know that part,
because Foxconn does not publish figures in this field. Three examples should give you a
better idea. In Wuhan, workers climbed on the roof of the factory threatened to jump into
the void. They obviously do not intend to put their threat into execution, it was just a
ploy to raise public pressure on the company and thereby obtain higher wages. They are not
the only ones to have done. There is even now a term for this form of struggle: the Jump
from the building show (or "Directed jump from the roof").
Our second example is a riot in Taiyuan (Shanxi), caused by an assault by security guards
of the factory, a common phenomenon around the world ... Workers arrived at the time of
shift change have thrown their turn in the fight, first against the security guards, then
against the police. The dormitories are located on the same site, which employs 80,000
employees and has streets and shops. It's like a full-fledged city. Our third example
concerns a strike last year in a factory producing iPhones. Following complaints from U.S.
customers who found scratches and scuffs on all new phones, leaders pressured staff for
product quality improves. The workers' response was to physically assault those
responsible for quality control and then strike.
Social resistance in China and strategy of the State
There is a rise of social resistance for twenty years, with a marked acceleration over the
past eight years. Hundreds of thousands of incidents are due not only to workers but also
farmers and other actors include. Let us first recall that all these struggles illegal.
When I ask the Chinese how to translate in their language "wildcat strike", they have no
expression to nominate since there is no strike that is not wild at home. Then, it should
be noted that all these hard struggles are conducted in the absence of any official
representative organization. The Communist Party does not authorize the establishment of
independent associations, which requires workers to fight on their own.
Reveal three parallel developments for three years: the rise of social struggles, the
emergence of a new topic, given the participation of migrants transforming the quality of
struggles. Previous struggles were mainly defensive types (against plant closures or pay
below the standard), while the latest have a more offensive (to get higher wages and
better conditions). No wonder these three developments: in other parts of the world,
industrialization produced over two hundred years of similar phenomena, with the
constitution whenever a new working class. Think of the United States in the early
twentieth century Europe after the Second World War, and even South Korea more recently.
Then, there is a significant change in Chinese migrants. The first generation in the
1990s, little was combative: the goal was to win fast money and return to the village.
Those of the second generation in the 2000s, who were better informed (by their elders),
wanted to stay in town and have more information at their disposal. Today, a third
generation of migrants is being formed. Like most people in third generation in the world,
those of China have no desire to work in a factory. They aspire to get an office job,
learn computers, etc.. Alas, they do not succeed and end up factory in poorly paid jobs.
Some spend a few months at Foxconn, before returning ras-le-bol.
How do they react capital and the state? Punishment is inevitable under the dictatorship
and police state. Yet, the state is forced to deal with a certain level of control.
Workers who are mere participants do not suffer penalties, while those identified as
leaders are usually returned. In addition, incarceration is the fate of anyone trying to
set up an independent organization. But, in parallel, the state has established over the
past twenty years a number of social laws with a view to channeling struggles. He tends to
play an active role as a mediator in order to calm the workers.
Trade unions are a separate folder. China has allegedly the world's biggest trade union,
but it is entirely dependent on the Communist Party. Bureaucrats are either officers or
employees paid by a company, so that most of the workers perceive the union as a component
of management. It is therefore not really work as unions in other countries. This poses
problems for employers, because they are without mediation bodies or sources of
information about what is happening on the ground. One could even argue that China is like
a laboratory where the state capital and have no means of intervention.
Some in the party and the union are aware of the problem and looking for solutions. They
seem particularly fond of visiting German union officials to explain their operation of
business and co-management committees. During one of these meetings that were invited
figures of IG Metall, I had the greatest difficulty in control when they told me how a
union can avoid strikes. However, stifle any independent trade union activity remains the
dominant line in the Chinese PC.
One consequence of the struggles is that the monthly salaries are rising sharply for five
or six years, around 15% per year. The state plays a major role because it sets the
minimum wage by region. Every year, so it remains the official minimum and most companies
apply. But, because of regional differences, wages in western countries can be 50% lower
in those who are paid on the coast. This explains why Chinese companies tend to relocate
their production to the West, following the pattern found elsewhere in the world.
Chinese companies in Eastern Europe
The oldest sites Foxconn in China were in the delta of the Pearl River or Shanghai, then
they have relocated factories inward. The good news is that the struggles followed the
movements of the group to new sites. The three examples I have presented all took place in
newer plants, from relocation. But Foxconn also implements abroad, Czech Republic,
Slovakia. Moreover, other Chinese companies do the same, partly in order to expand their
presence in the world. The Eastern Europe attracts because of low wages, but also because
it is an entry in the EU door.
In the Czech Republic, Foxconn has two sites with a total of 10 000 employees who produce
laptops and servers. As in China, the work is done under high surveillance, with strict
hierarchies, sanctions and fines. Surprisingly, many of the group of Czech workers work
twelve hours straight, but unlike the Chinese, they are entitled to a break after a few
days. Another difference is that Foxconn do not apply the same policy to recruit migrants
and precarious. Fifty per cent of workers are Czech or Slovak and have a permanent
contract, the others being temporary originating mainly from Asia or poorer countries of
Eastern Europe. In the latter category, there is a higher proportion of women. In
Slovakia, the group has a production unit TV screens and monitors he bought Sony in 2010.
He continues to produce the same flat Sony screens before, but now as its subcontractor.
Given the strict immigration policy in Slovakia, all employees are Slovak - mostly women
who commute daily between their village and the factory. With regard to employees,
considering the Eastern as a whole, there are similar to those that exist in China
deviations. The Czech Republic that wages are higher: employees hired on fixed earning
between 600 and 650 euros per month - against 150 euros in Macedonia and Bulgaria. But as
the price level is a little lower than in China, the wage gap with Eastern Europe is not
as great as before.
Foxconn factories in the East experienced the struggles of low intensity, but no major
strikes. There is absolutely not the same balance of power in China, which has a shortage
of labor, strong economic growth and thus a relatively favorable situation for workers. In
much of Eastern Europe, which are conditions of crisis, with the deindustrialization then
re-industrialization and high unemployment ...
To understand the balance of power and control options, I would like to mention another
case, this time on a Chinese factory, Chung Hong Electronics, located in a special
economic zone in Poland, the only EU country to have such areas. Most date back to the
late 1990s - early 2000s, when they were established to attract foreign investment in the
electronics, automotive, etc.. The plant in question, located near Wroc?aw, was built by
the Korean company LG to produce flat-screen TVs. LG has pushed all its subcontractors to
also settle in the area. Workers produce motherboards for Chinese society Chung Hong.
These, mostly women, want to get in control and have therefore turned to several unions,
including Solidarity, who refused to help. They made contact with a small
anarcho-syndicalist union gave them the means to develop their own structure. I spend half
my time in Poland, which has allowed me to work with the anarcho-syndicalists in this
case. Tragically, the workers lost because they had underestimated the determination of
their Chinese bosses, who did not hesitate to turn all the strikers.
"We are not machines. "It's the same slogan in Chinese Foxconn workers and strikers in
Hong Chung Poland. Polish workers liken China to capitalism - the bosses! In a meeting, so
I told them the experience of Chinese workers in struggle and this information has
transformed their vision of China. In conclusion, I would like to emphasize the importance
for all of us to understand that there is real movement there, that Chinese workers are
neither competitors nor simply poor victims.
(Thanks to SouBis for these notes.)
(1) To order, contact: Trade and Movement, BP 241, 75866 Paris cedex 18.
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» Organisation Communiste Libertarie (OCL) - Courant Alternatif, CA #234 - Workers in China and in Chinese factories on the outskirts of the EU by ocl-lyon (fr)