And let’s not forget that the ChiComs pay no regard whatsoever to environmental regulations and show no regard for the environment.
If America could employ slave labor and paid no regard to the environment, I suppose we could “compete” with China’s robust manufacturing ability as well.
Of course, even with these two major advantages, the economy in China is imploding and they are about to have a serious situation trying to take care of and control their population.
“And let’s not forget that the ChiComs pay no regard whatsoever to environmental regulations and show no regard for the environment.
If America could employ slave labor and paid no regard to the environment, I suppose we could “compete” with China’s robust manufacturing ability as well.”
Good observations there.
An excerpt from the original article (I read all 7 pages):
“Banners on the walls warned the 120,000 employees: “Work hard on the job today or work hard to find a job tomorrow.” Apple’s supplier code of conduct dictates that, except in unusual circumstances, employees are not supposed to work more than 60 hours a week. But at Foxconn, some worked more, according to interviews, workers’ pay stubs and surveys by outside groups. Mr. Lai was soon spending 12 hours a day, six days a week inside the factory, according to his paychecks. Employees who arrived late were sometimes required to write confession letters and copy quotations. There were “continuous shifts,” when workers were told to work two stretches in a row, according to interviews.”
I was not a stranger in my career to long days on the job, coming from a railroad environment where one can easily work 6, 7, 8 or 9 “shifts” a week (or even more), and where 72 hour weeks are normal (you can leave for work at 10pm one night and not get back ‘til almost two days later).
But reading the excerpt, and thinking back to how work conditions were here in _this country_ in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, it’s not hard to understand why workers had little choice but to look to unions to better their conditions when no alternative course seemed available to them.
For the exact same reasons, we are now seeing pushes for unionization of Chinese workers, and in some cases (I’m thinking of musical instrument production) this is pushing up the cost of the finished goods.
Interestingly, the companies here in America that seem to be successful in keeping away the union monster also seem to treat their workers much better. I’m thinking of outfits like Toyota and Honda, which run large operations both in the South and also up north (Honda is big in Ohio). Maybe those jobs dont pay quite as much as “union scale”, but the work is better as well as the employees’ futures....