Cheap Labor in China coming to an End???

[bluefrog]

Link

Last month, nearly 2,000 Chinese workers went on strike at a Honda transmission factory in southern China. The strike eventually spread across the mainland, halting production at all four of Honda's factories in China.

One Honda worker on strike posted a question online to his fellow workers: "Our parents have suffered from this cheap labor market and now they are getting old. Do we want to follow in the footsteps of our parents?"

A new generation is shaking China's labor landscape, according to Reuters. With the support of the Chinese government, they are demanding higher wages. And if recent weeks are any indication, companies that depend on them to mass-produce electronics, auto parts and other goods sold around the world will answer their call.

It will be interesting to see how the Chinese government handles this situation. With the shrinking work force workers will have more power to ask for higher wages and more benefits. This will lead to higher production costs and companies will look elsewhere for cheap labor. As we learned in the "Perhaps and explanation why the economy isn't improving under the Messiah", higher minimum wages lead to higher unemployment.

Will the government let them leave or will they simply nationalise the factories?

 

[BlazerWookee]

They'll probably liquidate the rabble rousers and replace them with obedient slaves.

Again.

 

[chris_in_pdx]

As we learned in the "Perhaps and explanation why the economy isn't improving under the Messiah", higher minimum wages lead to higher unemployment.

So do Child Labor Laws and OSHA. Hell, anyone who pisses and whines about making 20 cents an hour hates capitalism.

 

[BrianFromWA]

^^^Damn government intervention.

 

[Entity]

Honda: "Indonesia, here we come!"

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

Well, the biggest company in the news recently is Foxconn, who makes the iphones and other gadgets. They had a bunch of suicides at their factories....due to low wages. Then apparantly they were giving 30% raises to everyone....the last I heard was that they were going to cancel the raises and move the factories to Vietnam, where the workers won't complain.

 

[EL PRESIDENTE]

They'll probably liquidate the rabble rousers and replace them with obedient slaves.

Again.

At yesterday's annual shareholder meeting, Foxconn revealed that it'll no longer be compensating families of dead employees as a move to discourage further suicides. CEO Terry Gou reasoned by exhibiting evidence that showed the money -- an amount almost equivalent to ten years' worth of salary -- was a major motivation for the suicides. One such exhibit was a man's suicide letter that contained the following message for his parents:

"...now I'm going to jump off Foxconn, really leaving now, but you don't have to be sad, because Foxconn will pay a bit of money, this is all your son can repay you now."

Gou also blamed a possible "Werther Effect" created by the news coverage, which might have led to six of the twelve suicides all taking place in May. Consequently, the company will be handing over its welfare management work to the local Chinese government, as it's unable to deal with too many social responsibilities.

In the same meeting, the company made an unsurprising announcement that it's looking to relocate some manufacturing work, amid a worsened earnings forecast due to increased wages -- basic salary has gone up from ¥900 ($132) to ¥1,200 ($176), rising to as much as ¥2,000 ($293) for those who meet new performance criteria. This will involve setting up a fully automated facility in either Taiwan or Vietnam, while the existing Vietnamese plant will be receiving more orders. Chairman Samuel Chen also said that Foxconn will be working with its clients to share the load -- no further details on this, but we suspect Apple's rumored direct subsidies are part of the plan.

correctomundo.

 

[Entity]

They had a bunch of suicides at their factories....due to low wages.

This is why I think the publicity for this is weird, and correct me if I'm wrong: 12 suicides in 5 months at this Chinese factory complex of 300,000, or 9.6 per 100,000 per year. Actual Chinese national suicide rate: 13.9 per 100,000 per year. Looking at these numbers, maybe they ought to be promoting the fact that their suicide rate is lower than the national average.

 

[BrianFromWA]

One I start living off of retirement, a place where you can live comfortably on $180 a year sounds nice.

 

[bluefrog]

They'll probably liquidate the rabble rousers and replace them with obedient slaves.

Again.

China may actually have a military large enough to pull this off.

If there is a wide spread organized strike the military won't be able to do anything about it. You can only "liquidate" so many people before there is no one left to kill.