kunming log

A critical read of the media

Ran across an article this afternoon re: a major progress in the move toward Chinese labor's collective bargaining. After reading through the article, which sounds all warm and fuzzy, I used the word search tool to find instance of "state". The reason I sought out this particular word was because, amongst many other things not discussed in this article, it also failed to address that there are two types of factories: privately-owned and state-owned. Additionally, they failed to recognize which sectors would be covered (I can't believe its all sectors!).

The articles lack of detailed information about exactly whom is covered by this breakthrough in collective bargaining makes the wonderful news that they are conveying a little suspect.

One can think of China as a machine. The major moving parts were first established by macro state policy, which brought 1) capital improvements (roads), 2) opened the way for trade (obviously still closely guarded), and 3) foreign direct investment (again very closely regulated). Yet, as in many other places in the world, the grease that keeps this all going is cheap, ever-marginalized labor.

And in China there is certainly no shortage of cheap, ever-marginalized labor. 1.3 billion people to be exact.

Yeah, sure, China has made amazing strives in education. They have opened up more slots than ever in Universities. This increased enrollment in universities in some cases has even far exceeded capacity. Beijing's "Go West" policy has brought further improvements to the most underdeveloped regions. Beyond a doubt, all of this is certainly good news.

But still the problem persists of massive workplace abuses and migration to the east by people who were barely making it as it was in their rural villages. These rural migrates often times lack basic education, despite free universal primary education (addressed in previous posts).

Short of making a few hundred million individuals magically disappear, perhaps the government should concentrate more on the reasons why people migrate. Yes, they have begun to address issues of education/health care/employment, but there is so much more ground to cover.

In short, if massive migration of marginalized individuals, who are in large part subject to wide-spread workplace abuses, is the grease that keeps the machine going. Continuing to produce incredible leaps in China's GDP. Then the incentive to stop it is very much not a priority.

That being said, I welcome any improvements that help even just a few individuals. But I believe that anyone who truly cares about the lives of these individuals should look beyond these policies and demand more. These workers lack the ability to resist the system for a wide variety of reasons, which I will get into at a later point. On top of that, investors are less than enthusiastic about the prospects of their cost of goods sold (COGS) suddenly increasing because some unknown workers can send their kids to school.

All I am saying is that there needs to be a balance between the needs of the people and the needs of the system that all keeps it going. With the recent bad press that China has been getting in the west, its no wonder that they would quickly push through such measures in an attempt to calm the beast.

The article:

As Unrest Rises, China Broadens Workers’ Rights

BEIJING, June 29 — China’s legislature passed a sweeping new labor law on Friday that strengthens protections for workers across the booming economy, a response to increasing signs of restiveness among tens of millions of migrant laborers.

Source: New York Times

posted by Aki @ 9:50 PM