wgjones3
03-25-2008, 09:28 AM
Jalopnik just posted a look at the working conditions inside a Chinese factory making knockoff Smart cars (http://jalopnik.com/371517/take-a-look-inside-a-chinese-smart-fourtwo-cloning-factory) (yes, you heard right, knockoff CARS). From my experience in import/export, these working conditions are typical of, if not better than, the conditions the people I interacted with described.
If you do click the link, notice that the workers essentially live in a 10' X 10' room with bunk beds, they're working with fiberglass resin but given little more than paper masks, their "factory" is little more than an unheated airplane hanger, work days are 12+ hours, there may be child labor, the pay is ridiculously low... what the article doesn't describe, but what I ran across when talking with factory reps, is that the workers who live on-site typically get to go home only during the Chinese New Year celebration--which lasts two weeks. The other fifty weeks, they live and eat and work at the factory, and send what money they don't pay back to the factory for rent and food to their families. Some of the reps I dealt with described the New Year this way--a lot workers have to walk back home to see their families, and sometimes they spend three or four days walking.
If you click the link, you'll also notice that the comment trail is essentially a long list of mockery and light-hearted guffawing. See, we don't realize what that Made in China label means, that there are people working in substandard conditions to cut the price of our goods so that we can spend less money and buy more stuff. Even as the economy teeters in the wake of a devalued dollar, people are making it. Tightening the belt hasn't meant the kind of sacrifice and devastation that it might have for a low-income family gripped by the Great Depression less than a century ago.
We live in a country where we get in a car and go where we want when we want, where an eight hour work day is filled with distraction, where we get to spend time with our families and pursue our dreams. It's not like that all over the world. We have a lot to be thankful for. And we have a lot to pray for. And, I believe, we have a lot to answer for.
There's no real point to this except I saw the post on Jalopnik and it reminded me of a lot of things, a lot of the reasons why I left the import business, and why so many people fought to keep China from being awarded most favored nation trading status.
If you do click the link, notice that the workers essentially live in a 10' X 10' room with bunk beds, they're working with fiberglass resin but given little more than paper masks, their "factory" is little more than an unheated airplane hanger, work days are 12+ hours, there may be child labor, the pay is ridiculously low... what the article doesn't describe, but what I ran across when talking with factory reps, is that the workers who live on-site typically get to go home only during the Chinese New Year celebration--which lasts two weeks. The other fifty weeks, they live and eat and work at the factory, and send what money they don't pay back to the factory for rent and food to their families. Some of the reps I dealt with described the New Year this way--a lot workers have to walk back home to see their families, and sometimes they spend three or four days walking.
If you click the link, you'll also notice that the comment trail is essentially a long list of mockery and light-hearted guffawing. See, we don't realize what that Made in China label means, that there are people working in substandard conditions to cut the price of our goods so that we can spend less money and buy more stuff. Even as the economy teeters in the wake of a devalued dollar, people are making it. Tightening the belt hasn't meant the kind of sacrifice and devastation that it might have for a low-income family gripped by the Great Depression less than a century ago.
We live in a country where we get in a car and go where we want when we want, where an eight hour work day is filled with distraction, where we get to spend time with our families and pursue our dreams. It's not like that all over the world. We have a lot to be thankful for. And we have a lot to pray for. And, I believe, we have a lot to answer for.
There's no real point to this except I saw the post on Jalopnik and it reminded me of a lot of things, a lot of the reasons why I left the import business, and why so many people fought to keep China from being awarded most favored nation trading status.