Narz, I guess you read the entire article? I read most of it (skimmed a few parts), so if you or anyone else feel like correcting me, go right ahead.
However bad anyone thinks this is, I can't really see that the Factory or their clients are actually evil.
The work schedule is bad, but again, not hellish:
Starts at 07:15, having to listen to supervisor, etc. Then 2 hours work. 10 minutes break. Another 2 hours work. Then 1.5 hours lunch/rest break. Then 2 hours work. 10 minutes break. Another 2 hours work. Finally, 50 minutes supper-break, and then 3.8 hours
technically non-mandatory overtime. The workers choose to work the overtime (and the factory expects it [in fact, it seems workers must ask 'permission' to not work overtime]), because their hourly wages are to low to support a family on just 8 hours work a day. At 22:00 there's 15 minutes cleaning up and listening to the foreman. The workers dorm turns off the light at 23:00.
They do have extra overtime as well though: At least 4 times a month they work until 00:30 in the night. Note that all the overtime
is paid.
No one is forced to work there. In fact, if I understand correctly, it seems the workers can quit at any time they choose, and nobody would physically stop them. However, if they expect to continue working there, it seems they can only enter/leave the factory compound roughly during lunch, and between 18:00 (just after supper, before overtime-work) and until 21:30 on most days, and between 07:00 and 21:30 on Sundays. Workers who stay out overnight are fined and fired.
(When thinking about it, if they stay out overnight they will actually not be allowed to enter the workplace until after they have lost several hours of work... Then again, it is supposedly possible for workers to live outside the factory compound and start and end work at the same times as other workers...)
It's damn boring work, and the working conditions set up will necessarily lead to faults in the products, and burnt out workers. Indeed, it seems the company is running with a yearly >90% turnaround of workers! The rules/discipline is a bit draconian, especially about not being allowed to talk or use the bathroom when needed. The humiliation of individual workers (having them clean the floors or bathrooms as punishment instead/in addition to fines) and destruction of some workers private property (mobile phones and mp3-players brought to the factory) is especially bad. And the pay is not a living wage, but more an alive-enabling wage.
The under-18 workers are students who for the most part works in the factories during their 3 month summer vacation. Granted, it's not much of a vacation, and if they're poor, they may even work up to 6 months (missing school in the process I assume). It can also be noted that it seems to be company policy to fire workers when they get to their late twenties, as more experienced adults are supposedly harder to control (Draconian-management-speak for 'they know their rights and their own value' or something I guess).
Note however, that the company is in fact in violation of Chinese law:
Article said:
These hours and conditions are blatantly illegal. Under China's laws, fourteen and 15 year-olds may not work, while 16 and 17-year-olds are classified as "non-adult" workers, who cannot work more than eight hours a day.
The foremen seems like power hungry bastards, and the factory seems to punish errors or 'bad behavior' through fining the workers in future pay. I can agree that the fines are quite high compared to the damages done, and they even use collective punishment, but we're not talking North Korea here.
Article said:
Fined for losing a finger: A worker from Shanxi Province had his index finger chopped off while operating a hole punch press machine while working on an internet camera. Management did rush him to the hospital for emergency treatment. However, after an investigation, management determined that the worker had disobeyed regulations related to operating the punch press machine, so the worker was fined 200 RMB ($29.26) and fired! The foreman and section chief in that department were also fined. Management then rehired the injured worker as a security guard.
Workers injured at KYE are generally fined, as management accuses them of violating regulations on safe production methods.
Yeah, the worker was fined (and a severely high fine at that), however the foreman and section chief was also fined, and the worker was rehired into another job!
Another good thing is that the company seems to pay the agreed upon/promised wages in full. Of course, they do use the fines already mentioned, and they always (illegally) withhold 2 weeks worth of salary (probably as an incentive for workers not to quit). Minimum wage in Guangdong province is split into five categories, with the highest one being ¥780 RMB per month. With overtime, workers at KYE earn ¥1200 to ¥1500 RMB per month. That is more or less a survivable wage in China these days.
As a summary:
Article said:
As things stand now, workers at the KYE factory told us they have absolutely no hope of entering the middle-class if things remain the way they are. To be a worker at KYE means you must learn to eke out a primitive existence, working enormous hours while earning below subsistence level wages, and having no access to the most fundamental human or labor rights protections.
These workers don't have an easy life and their current conditions don't really allow them to get anywhere in their lives. However, I'm sure this is far from the worst examples anyone can find of people having difficult lives, and in truth, it is quite what you would expect to find in late 19th century Europe, US and Canada. Boycotting this company is really not going to help anyone in the short or medium run. And probably not in the long run either.
In the absolute sense, it should be remembered that dirt cheap products made by poor people like this is what keeps people in the West content. Even though their salaries may not increase to much, at least the products they buy for those salaries are cheaper. However, China and other countries are getting richer. When this trend eventually reverses, people in the West will no longer be content.
Final note: I like how tables showing US trade-deficit with China and US industrial job losses was sprinkled throughout the article.
fftopic: but yeah, I eat raw eggs all the time. By themselves they're kind of gross but I make & eat (uncooked) cookie dough on the regular (using Rye flour instead of wheat & honey instead of white & brown sugar). Most of the places I lived I didn't have an oven & besides cookie dough is way better than cookies.
(that you plug an MP3 player into).
