At first, this isn't going to sound like a good news story, never mind one of the most inspiring stories in the world today. But trust me: it is.
Yan Li spent his life tweaking tiny bolts, on a production line, for the gadgets that make our lives zing and bling. He might have pushed a crucial component of the laptop I am writing this article on, or the mobile phone that will interrupt your reading of it. He was a typical 27-year old worker at the gigantic Foxconn factory in Shenzen, Southern China, which manufactures iPads and Playstations and mobile phone batteries.
Li was known to the company by his ID number: F3839667. He stood at a whirring line all day, every day, making the same tiny mechanical motion with his wrist, for 20 pence an hour. According to his family, sometimes his shifts lasted for 24 hours; sometimes they stretched to 35. If he had tried to form a free trade union to change these practices, he would have been imprisoned for twelve years. On the night of May 27th, after yet another marathon-shift, Li dropped dead.
Deaths from overwork are so common in Chinese factories they have a word for it: guolaosi. China Daily estimates 600,000 people are killed this way every year, mostly making goods for us. Li had never experienced any health problems, his family says, until he started this work schedule; Foxconn say he died of asthma and his death had nothing to do with them. The night Li died, yet another Foxconn worker committed suicide -- the tenth this year.
For two decades now, you and I have shopped until Chinese workers dropped. Business has bragged about the joys of the China Price. They have been less keen for us to see the Human Price. KYE Systems Corp run a typical factory in Donguan in southern mainland China, and one of their biggest clients is Microsoft - so in 2009 the US National Labour Committee sent Chinese investigators undercover there. On the first day a teenage worker whispered to them: "We are like prisoners here."
The staff work and live in giant factory-cities that they almost never leave. Each room sleeps ten workers, and each dorm houses 5000. There are no showers; they are given a sponge to clean themselves with. A typical shift begins at 7.45am and ends at 10.55pm. Workers must report to their stations fifteen minutes ahead of schedule for a military-style drill: "Everybody, attention! Face left! Face right!" Once they begin, they are strictly forbidden from talking, listening to music, or going to the toilet. Anybody who breaks this rule is screamed at and made to clean the toilets as punishment. Then it's back to the dorm.
It's the human equivalent to battery farming. One worker said: "My job is to put rubber pads on the base of each computer mouse... This is a mind-numbing job. I am basically repeating the same motion over and over for over twelve hours a day." At a nearby Meitai factory, which made keyboards for Microsoft, a worker said: "We're really livestock and shouldn't be called workers." They are even banned from making their own food, or having sex. They live off the gruel and slop they are required to buy from the canteen, except on Fridays, when they are given a small chicken leg and foot, "to symbolize their improving life."
Even as their work has propelled China towards being a super-power, these workers got less and less. Wages as a proportion of GDP fell in China every single year from 1983 to 2005.
They can be treated this way because of a very specific kind of politics that has prevailed in China for two decades now. Very rich people are allowed to form into organizations -- corporations -- to ruthlessly advance their interests, but the rest of the population is forbidden by the secret police from banding together to create organizations to protect theirs. The political practices of Maoism were neatly transferred from communism to corporations: both regard human beings as dispensable instruments only there to serve economic ends.
We'll never know the names of all the people who paid with their limbs, their lungs, or their lives for the goodies in my home and yours. Here's just one: think of him as the Unknown Worker, standing for them all. Liu Pan was a 17 year old operating a machine that made cards and cardboard that were sold on to big name Western corporations, including Disney. When he tried to clear its jammed machinery, he got pulled into it. His sister said: "When we got his body, his whole head was crushed. We couldn't even see his eyes."
So you might be thinking -- was it a cruel joke to bill this as a good news story? Not at all. An epic rebellion has now begun in China against this abuse -- and it is beginning to succeed. Across 126,000 Chinese factories, workers have refused to live like this any more. Wildcat unions have sprung up, organized by text message, demanding higher wages, a humane work environment, and the right to organize freely. Millions of young workers across the country are blockading their factories and chanting "there are no human rights here!" and "we want freedom!" The suicides were a rebellion of despair; this is a rebellion of hope.
Last year, the Chinese dictatorship was so panicked by the widespread uprisings that they prepared an extraordinary step forward. They drafted a new labor law that would allow workers to form and elect their own trade unions. It would plant seeds of democracy across China's workplaces. Western corporations lobbied very hard against it, saying it would create a "negative investment environment" - by which they mean smaller profits. Western governments obediently backed the corporations and opposed freedom and democracy for Chinese workers. So the law was whittled down and democracy stripped out.
It wasn't enough. This year Chinese workers have risen even harder to demand a fair share of the prosperity they create. Now company after company is making massive concessions: pay rises of over 60 percent are being conceded. Even more crucially, officials in Guandong province, the manufacturing heartland of the country, have announced they are seriously considering allowing workers to elect their own representatives to carry out collective bargaining after all.
Just like last time, Western corporations and governments are lobbying frantically against this -- and to keep the millions of Yan Lis stuck at their assembly lines into the 35th hour.
This isn't a distant struggle: you are at its heart, whether you like it or not. There is an electrical extension cord running from your laptop and mobile and games console to the people like Yan Li and Liu Pan dying to make them. So you have to make a choice. You can passively let the corporations and governments speak for you in trying to beat these people back into semi-servitude - or you can side with the organizations here that support their cry for freedom, like No Sweat in Britain, or the National Labour Committee in the US, by donating to them, or volunteering for their campaigns.
Yes, if this struggle succeeds, it will mean that we will have to pay a little more for some products, in exchange for the freedom and the lives of people like Yan Li and Liu Pan. But previous generations have made that choice. After slavery was abolished in 1833, Britain's GDP fell by 10 percent -- but they knew that cheap goods and fat profits made from flogging people until they broke were not worth having. Do we?
Johann Hari is a writer for the Independent. To read more of his articles, click here or here.
You can follow Johann at www.twitter.com/johannhari101 or email him at j.hari [at] independent.co.uk
To read his latest article for Slate, click here
Follow Johann Hari on Twitter: www.twitter.com/johannhari101
Further; "Understanding that there have been controversies around the legality of 5-day or 6-day workweek practiced ... in mainland China, the ICTI CARE Process, the ethical manufacturing program of the toy industry, has sought opinions from various distinguished professional law firms, legal practitioners, national and local toy associations in mainland China, as well as the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security in China.
The controversy revolves around whether 5 working days with 8 hours of normal work hours per day and henceforth two rest days in a week, or, 6 working days with less than 8 hours of normal work hours per day but still with overall normal work hours at or no more than 40 hours per week and henceforth one rest day per week, should be regarded as a normal workweek. Different understanding of what constitutes a legal work week results in different calculations of overtime pay
for workers and the number of rest days workers would be entitled to, and therefore has led to debate on the legality of the 6-day-workweek model.
Many legal experts well-versed in China labor laws and the Chinese government itself have reiterated, normal working hour arrangements for workers (not including overtime) will be considered legal as long as the following criteria are met –
- Workers do not work more than 8 hours a day and do not work more than 40 hours a week;
- Workers have at least one day off per week
You are unwilling to accept any facts that is diametrical to your previously chosen belief! I believe that is being antipathetic for its own sake.
When the Labor Law was promulgated, it stipulated that work hours not exceed eight hours a day or 44 hours a week on the average. In March 1995 the State Council issued a circular adopting the five-day work week nationwide, thus shortening the working hours of workers and staff to 40 hours a week. In order to implement the Labor Law, a labor contract system, a minimum-wage system and a labor supervision system have basically been established in the whole country. By August 1995 28 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government had officially adopted minimum-wage standards for their respective localities. Governments at all levels have strengthened supervision of labor security and health protection during work. (http://www.china.org.cn/e-white/phumanrights19/p-5.htm)
Therefore there seems to be a disconnect between the statements in the story and China. I wonder how many will claim China is just lying?
Since pence in mentioned I presume we are comparing Southern China to England.
A comparison shows the following;
Indexes Difference Info
Consumer Prices in London are 276.14% higher than in Shenyang
Consumer Prices Including Rent in London are 538.38% higher than in Shenyang
Rent Prices in London are 1,893.37% higher than in Shenyang
Restaurant Prices in London are 370.72% higher than in Shenyang
Groceries Prices in London are 118.59% higher than in Shenyang
Local Purchasing Power in London is 20.13% higher than in Shenyang
The Labor Law of the People's Republic of China, adopted in July 1994 by the Standing Committee of the Eighth National People's Congress, fully and concretely states the basic rights of laborers granted by the Constitution. ... The Labor Law stipulates that the state implement a minimum wage guarantee system and a paid annual vacation system, in addition to standards for work hours, ...
It is a sad day when there are no unions to protect the worker's fair wages and working conditions.
Next, the job market will be nothing but parttime jobs which don't pay benefits, and we will see what the middleclass will look like in 5-10 years from now. You can't buy a house or a car on part time wages and raise a family as well.
While there may have been a time and use for unions they are now mostly ruining business. Membership in them is declining as well. Since 2000 membership in all private categories has gone down. Even so the highest rate of union membership in the private sector was in Natural resources, Construction, & Material movement in 2000 @ 22%. Even that represents a small portion of the employed. The highest level of union participation (42% - in 2000) is in Government work, even that has declined but by a small margin (41%). Based on your assertion I can only conclude that the Government is the most evil employer for which to work. The average decline is 2%. The average, current, over all union membership is 19%, and that includes management. (BLS)
I know that people in the US consider this a forbidden question, but how much do you think you cost your employer? How much of that is your salary?
First you are mistaken. Second JUST how do you define "slavery"?
Serious question. Please answer.
Thank you for such superb report, I'm hoping, inspiring United Statesman to take constitutional required control of this nation to ensure slavery is abolished from being the United States' fault. If Obama will "ensure the faithful execution of the laws" (Article 2.3) he would submit to congress a bill to cap all business' profits to 10% of manufacturing cost and overhead per item. If not, WE THE PEOPLE should unite and DRAFT a whole new congress, house and senate, this November and require them to.
There's no way WE THE PEOPLE can justify supporting a government fostering slavery in any nation. If our nation is "to form a more perfect union" we have to form one with every nation and not just "allies". Without intenting to form a world union we will never form a national union. Look at Arizona, Gay & Lesbian marriage rights, equal gender pay rights, homelessness and so many more rights denied our citizens, until we form a union of all man here there is no reason to expect a one world government to do any better with non-allies and "third world " nations.
The reason those slave camps are allowed is because WE THE PEOPLE are willing to buy name brands with up to 1000% markup over cost and overhead, so we can sport that name. It is time to wake up United State and see just what your illusion of lavish living is costing other man.
That is so ridicules, no wonder the plot for the NWO is so secret, if the constitution ever get overturned even the American people will be worked like that or go to concentration camps and forced to do it for less. That is what those are over there, concentration camps, not sweat shops. I've been saying the US is supposed to become Nazi America [the governing elite being the super race] and everyone else here working like that, 2 classes of people, the governing rich and workers. That's why they're working so hard to eliminate the middle class.
We have real troubles on our hands if WE THE PEOPLE don't band together and control this unconstitutional government. This is what Oliver North was eluding to when he told congress they had only delayed overturning the constitution. I never knew it was like all that!!!
Tell me Elijah, What is the profit margin of the oil companies? Where do you think the most profitable oil company is in the profit pile? I'll give you a hint, it is not a single digit!
Oh, by the way Obama is not engaged in "ensure(ing) the faithful execution of the laws" (Article 2.3) now. Nor does he appear ready to change.
Kerosene cost about $.03 per gallon, diesel about .06, regular about .10 and the most expensive about .18, and drilling, all the investors, refineries and transportation are paid out of the cost to the retailer. You do the math concerning the cost of gas in your area.
Since *Obama is not engaged in "ensure(ing) the faithful execution of the laws" (Article 2.3)* is why I have http://www.change.org/petitions/view/eliminate_capitalistic-military_regime as a petition being sent to him with every signature, so he already know he is required to step down for failing to uphold his constitutional requirements.
Weather or not he wants to, we have the constitutional power to get him out. I think he will be out before this November election. Although he doesn't want to change, he has to at least change his position from this nation's president.
Love
Bette S Baysinger
So maybe this parallel isn't quite so appropriate
True enough, the cotton gin removed that labor, but it did so in such a remarkable fashion that it allowed massive expansion of cotton as a cash crop. Suddenly southern fields previously full of lower paying crops were full of cotton, which still required intense manual labor to tend and harvest.
In turn, the additional slaves needed to produce this crop, plus the loss of food supplying fields, allowed northern fields to become much of the food source for the South. With cotton producing so much money in export, northern farmers naturally raised their prices for food. In a bad cotton year, slave owners still had to clothe and feed slaves and make some effort to keep them healthy, while northern farmers kept farming, or could even raise prices. Northern textile mills could simply lay off workers.
The economic writing was on the wall and plain enough to see, but the social stigma, particularly in the South, of whites being superior to slaves, and slaves even being dangerous, (read Haiti) made the wholesale emancipation of slaves seem out of the question. These things, along with the growing anti-slavery sentiments in the North, problems with runaways, and state expansion led to the war.
In the early days of the US virtually all of the "northern" states had already begun to eliminate slavery. By the time of the Civil War no slaves were held in the "northern" states.
I am searching out actual numbers for analysis.
The best set I found is here; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_the_United_States#Abolitionist_movement
basis of consumerism, and by sustainable I mean a people and environment friendly
economy.
When is 'Made in USA' 'NOT Made in USA'?
When it is made by Chinese owned factories, using 100% Chinese materials and parts, by Chinese citizen workers, 800 miles from mainland China on the US Commonwealth island of Saipan and other Northern Mariana Islands.
And in some future time when robots do all labor, just as human slaves do now, what value will actual humans have to those who own the robots?
It will be far worse for Mankind than what is going on in China, in that future.