An interview by Silvia Tagliabue.
Au Loong Yu was one of the founding members of Globalization Monitor, Hong Kong, and is also on its editorial board. He co-authored two Chinese books on China reform and on free trade and globalization. He was the main author of the booklet Women Migrant Workers under the Chinese Social Apartheid and the author of No Choice but to Fight — A documentary on battery women workers' struggle, (Globalization Monitor), forthcoming.
In this interview he speaks about the chinese car industry and the chinese workers' struggles. A string of suicides among Chinese assembly line workers at Taiwanese IT giant Foxconn, three work stoppages at Honda plants and other labour actions have focused attention on conditions in the so-called "workshop of the world". Strikes by workers at Honda-affiliated factories in southern China's Guangdong province have shaken the 'sweatshop of the world'. The fighting example of the Honda workers, many in their teens or early twenties, has spawned a spate of copycat strikes across China as migrant workers at foreign-owned companies especially, slaving for notoriously long hours and low wages, demand pay rises, improved conditions and "restructured" trade unions. The first Honda strike, in the Guangdong city of Foshan, was "the biggest and most effective strike witnessed against a multinational in China" according to the South China Morning Post.
Labour rights activists say the millions of workers in China's factories -- many of them migrants living far from home and family -- are consistently faced with low pay, long hours and pressure to produce as much, as fast as possible.
The 1,500 workers at the Honda Lock factory in the southern province of Guangdong -- the heart of China's industrial belt -- have disrupted production of car locks and key sets for Japan's number two carmaker for a week over pay.
Honda's labour woes in China have stalled production on the auto assembly lines run by its Chinese joint venture Guangqi Honda Automobile several times in recent weeks. All three strikes have now been resolved.
The company has a production capacity of 650,000 vehicles a year in China.
So far, the work stoppages in China -- which have received widespread coverage from the country's tightly-controlled state media -- have mainly affected foreign-invested firms.
Dozens of people were hurt in clashes earlier this month at a Taiwan-funded rubber factory in the eastern province of Jiangsu when security forces tried to prevent about 2,000 striking workers from taking their protest to the streets.
Beijing has reacted to the labour unrest by launching a round of minimum wage hikes across the nation, reflecting concern among the country's Communist leadership that frustrated workers could trigger wider social turmoil.
Nearly a quarter of Chinese employees have not had a raise in five years, according to the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.
In response to the 11 suicides among its Chinese work force, Foxconn doubled the salaries of its south China staff. The company employs an estimated 400,000 people in the southern city of Shenzhen alone.
Honda offered a 30 percent pay rise to workers at its main parts factory.
Loading...
4:37
Automotive Logistics Europe conference 2011 - for potential sponsorsby autologisticschannel518 views
Link to this comment:
All Comments (0)