China is finding out even cheap labor has limits

[Elmore Furth]

Source: MSNBC

SHANGHAI - Global manufacturers struggling with life-or-death pressures to control costs are finding that the legions of low-wage Chinese workers they rely on have limits.

Recent protests and the official response to a spate of suicides at Foxconn Technology, a maker of electronics for industry giants such as Apple, Dell and Hewlett-Packard, suggests China's leaders are at least tacitly allowing workers to talk back.

Over the weekend, the top communist party leader in Guangdong province visited Foxconn's sprawling factory where 10 workers have committed suicide and urged the company to adopt a "better, more humane working environment" for its mostly young workers, state media reported.

"Wages have been rising in recent years, but compared with soaring prices they remain very low," said Li Qiang, founder of New York-based China Labor Watch.

Read more: V/ns/business-world_business/

---

Suicides? Damned inconvenient for modern sweat shops.

[bananas]

1. bad link. nt

[yowzayowzayowza]

10. Good link:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37436341/ns/business-world_business

[xchrom]

2. 'Cheap products are what corporations have given all of us

In lieu of pay rises.

And there are a lot of dead and ruined people
in the race for Cheap.

[valerief]

3. When are the puppetmasters going to replace us proles with robots? nt

[Romulox]

4. If it's not the cheapest, what advantage does China offer?

There is no innovation originating from Chinese manufacturers; just contract work. The prices rise, the jobs leave. China has little competitive advantage other than cheap atm...

[1776Forever]

5. QVC has a lady on that has her clothes manufactured in China & she has been saying it will end soon.

Her clothes are really lovely but they are mostly hand done by women in China. There are hundreds of hand sewn on beads on them and it takes them a long time to get them done. For the prices they can sell them for here in the U.S. it wouldn't be feasible to do it here in the States unless it was done on a machine.

The lady has said she sees in even a couple of years this kind of garment will be gone forever in mass quantities because the younger women are not interested in doing this kind of work any more. Even in 1 Billion people the younger people are saying "No" to this kind of tedious work.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

7. People won't do that kind of work

because it doesn't pay. Most people will do ANYTHING if the price is right....

[xchrom]

12. In countries with a tradition of Haute Couture

There are people who sew, bead, appliqué,
hem exquisitly -- but you have to pay for that labor.

Now there are degrees and as a rule you can get beautifully
sewn products but they're not cheap right here.

The real quandry lies not in the expense of the product
but what we are making for a living -- it isn't
enough.

We all recognize that say when a heating bill comes due or
a doctors bill -- but not when we go to
pay for a shirt or a dress.

[superconnected]

6. Can you attach a good link please? I'd love to read the rest of the article.

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. Public television recently aired a documentary on Chinese labor - the hours worked for inhuman

17 to 24 hour shifts. To make clothes for wal mart

[Statistical]

9. Yup only Walmart.

Clothing in every other store in America is made in the USA. It just Walmart who uses chinese labor.

[Liberal_in_LA]

11. not just wal mart. The particular factory in the documentary was a manuf for wal mart

[DCBob]

13. I worked with a guy from China a few years back and he predicted something like this would happen..

There are immense underlying social problems. He said China will eventually self-destuct.