Chinese workers live where they work and work 15 hour shifts.

[hiddensniper11]

They are free to quit whenever they want. They won't do that however, they want the money.

That doesn't give factories the right to underpay them. An ethical company would still pay their employees apropriately even if it is a well known fact that jobs are scarce and people are desperate for them.

It is not the choice of the factory workers to work in these conditions, they probably did not have the education to know what their basic rights or channels for complaints.

Again, not having access to education may not be their choice.

 

[JMapleton]

A lot of clothing factories are like this. I try to only buy American made clothes and shoes. 7 Jeans and New Balanace 993s baby.

 

[Ruptga]

That doesn't give factories the right to underpay them. An ethical company would still pay their employees apropriately even if it is a well known fact that jobs are scarce and people are desperate for them.

It is not the choice of the factory workers to work in these conditions, they probably did not have the education to know what their basic rights or channels for complaints.

Again, not having access to education may not be their choice.

But how do you decide what qualifies as underpaying their workers? I'm not saying employer abuses don't happen, and if I were I still wouldn't say that about China, but 52c in the US is a lot different than 52c in China.

 

[llee]

A lot of clothing factories are like this. I try to only buy American made clothes and shoes. 7 Jeans and New Balanace 993s baby.

7 Jeans produces its jeans in Hong Kong...

I know because my sister works in corporate for the mother-company, Tarrant Apparal Group.

You might want to make a correction.

But how do you decide what qualifies as underpaying their workers? I'm not saying employer abuses don't happen, and if I were I still wouldn't say that about China, but 52c in the US is a lot different than 52c in China.

It's the same amount of money. I think you mean 52 cents here versus 52 'fen' (penny equivalent) over there.

 

[JMapleton]

7 Jeans produces its jeans in Hong Kong...

My jeans say Made in the United States on them and here is a video of their factory in California:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4rUb3chziY

 

[JS80]

7 Jeans produces its jeans in Hong Kong...

I know because my sister works in corporate for the mother-company, Tarrant Apparal Group.

You might want to make a correction.



It's the same amount of money. I think you mean 52 cents here versus 52 'fen' (penny equivalent) over there.

Most 7 jeans are made in sweat shops in downtown LA.

 

[JMapleton]

Most 7 jeans are made in sweat shops in downtown LA.

Sweat shops is an ambiguous word and proper sweat shops do not exist in the US.

If the employees are paid market wages and the facilities are clean and safe, it's not a sweat shop. The factory in the video above looks very clean to me.

 

[JS80]

Sweat shops is an ambiguous word and proper sweat shops do not exist in the US.

If the employees are paid market wages and the facilities are clean and safe, it's not a sweat shop. The factory in the video above looks very clean to me.

I wasn't saying it implying it a derogatory thing. I fully support sweat shops. My ex-gf's dad owns sweat shop factories that make 7 jeans.

 

[Special K]

That doesn't give factories the right to underpay them. An ethical company would still pay their employees apropriately even if it is a well known fact that jobs are scarce and people are desperate for them.

It is not the choice of the factory workers to work in these conditions, they probably did not have the education to know what their basic rights or channels for complaints.

Again, not having access to education may not be their choice.

What does it mean to pay an employee "ethically"? How much money should they "ethically" be paid? Aren't they being paid market rate for their skills? My question isn't being sarcastic - I'm seriously asking how you would determine what an "ethical" wage would be.

On a related note, with all of the manufacturing moving to China, shouldn't wages for these workers rise at some point as the factory owners are forced to compete with each other for more workers?

Finally, weren't the people in developing countries self-sufficient through farming, etc. at some point before the factories came in? They had to survive somehow. It may not have been a great lifestyle, but the people obviously think that working in the factory is a better lifestyle than whatever they had before.

 

[coloumb]

"women 18 to 25 years of age, since they are easier to discipline and control"

Really? China must be the only society where this is true. Most women I know between 18-25 are insanely wild and uncontrollable [girls gone wild!] 🙂

 

[Mr. Pedantic]

"women 18 to 25 years of age, since they are easier to discipline and control"

Really? China must be the only society where this is true. Most women I know between 18-25 are insanely wild and uncontrollable [girls gone wild!]

It's true. Asian culture is a lot different from Western culture. They place a lot more importance on listening to authority, and even now, it's more so for women.

 

[eLiu]

lol, my uncle owns a shoe factory that uses this practice. Their work-shifts are something like 12-14 hours. I forget what the wage is, but it isn't high (duh). The company also provides 3 meals and living quarters for employees & their families. The living quarters were like 2 rooms/family; not nearly as bad as what's in the OP. And the food wasn't terrible either, if not pretty boring. It didn't seem like the worst possible arrangement when I was visiting, at least for people on the manufacturing floor. The tanners seemed to have it much worse--all those caustic chemicals & no real protective gear.

Also the bathroom building was nasty. Pee on the wall & shit in a trench which is 'flushed' once a day.

 

[JEDIYoda]

I love hearing these stories and with China's huge growth...how long can they sustain huge growth + slave labor? Can't have it both ways

wanna bet????

 

[Hacp]

lol, my uncle owns a shoe factory that uses this practice. Their work-shifts are something like 12-14 hours. I forget what the wage is, but it isn't high (duh). The company also provides 3 meals and living quarters for employees & their families. The living quarters were like 2 rooms/family; not nearly as bad as what's in the OP. And the food wasn't terrible either, if not pretty boring. It didn't seem like the worst possible arrangement when I was visiting, at least for people on the manufacturing floor. The tanners seemed to have it much worse--all those caustic chemicals & no real protective gear.

Also the bathroom building was nasty. Pee on the wall & shit in a trench which is 'flushed' once a day.

Wow your uncle must be rich. Is he looking for spare fingers, I'm selling my thumb for a million.

 

[Cattykit]

So you think it's better to starve than work 15 hours a day and get paid?

Yup, we need to exploit those who are unfortunate.
I'm sorry but your logic is plain simple, one-sided, and stupid. Why do you have to compare extreme to extrme? Such extremist mentality is just silly at its best.
Try applying your logic into your own situation to realize how it doesn't make sense.


Anyway, the furture looks gloomy for such Chinese. There are way too many people who are in a shitty situation that they're willing to put up with this kind of nasty situation. Such insanly large surplus of people, in a way, forces them to victimize themselves.

 

[0roo0roo]

they take those jobs because it pays way better than being a subsistence farmer.

anyways its not like the fair trade folks buy american cars to support american workers😛 its always whining about some brazilian coffee farmer or some sh*t

 

[Ruptga]

It's the same amount of money. I think you mean 52 cents here versus 52 'fen' (penny equivalent) over there.

Seriously? Do you really have so little knowledge of exchange rates and the consumer price index? For example, a dollar's value in the US will get you a can of pop, a dollar's value in Peru will get you a decent meal. I have no idea what it's like in China, but there's no way a dollar goes exactly as far there as it does here.

And everything is saying cents, if it were fen why wouldn't they call it fen?
original report where it's still referred to as cents.

 

[sdifox]

I love hearing these stories and with China's huge growth...how long can they sustain huge growth + slave labor? Can't have it both ways

slave labour never went away in China. Not likely to go away any time soon.

 

[meltdown75]

thanks Chinese dudes. :thumbsup:

 

[Drekce]

I am sure that their constitution makes it illegal for employers to abuse employees like this.

It doesn't matter what their constitution says, it isn't enforced the way ours is in America, and you can't project any sort of American ideals onto their culture or Government. There is no (effective) Chinese ACLU...

 

[halik]

You missed my point entirely. The working conditions today have changed compared to 100 years ago, even in China. 15 hour work week was common in America 100-150 years ago when it was legal. You're telling me a country as capable as China does not have laws prohibiting this? A communist country founded on workers' rights? I'm not naive to believe that the government believes in the communist idealism. However, I am sure that their constitution makes it illegal for employers to abuse employees like this.

The conditions have changed in the DEVELOPED countries. Take a look at what's going in subsaharan africa and tell me how it's different from the new frontier circa 1800s.

They have no laws to do this because they're happy that they can develop as fast as they are. Income per Capita in china is less than in Angola, so it's either work in factories 15 hours a day or do subsistence farming in the rural areas.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

ǝʌıן oʇ ǝɔɐןd ɐ puɐ sqoɾ ǝʌɐɥ ʎǝɥʇ ʇsɐǝן ʇɐ

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

Once we adopt chinas methods we'll finally fix our unemployment issues/economy!

 

[krunchykrome]

sounds my my experience when I worked in public accounting

 

[gimmewhitecastles]

Yup, we need to exploit those who are unfortunate.
I'm sorry but your logic is plain simple, one-sided, and stupid. Why do you have to compare extreme to extrme? Such extremist mentality is just silly at its best.
Try applying your logic into your own situation to realize how it doesn't make sense.


Anyway, the furture looks gloomy for such Chinese. There are way too many people who are in a shitty situation that they're willing to put up with this kind of nasty situation. Such insanly large surplus of people, in a way, forces them to victimize themselves.

Your logic one-sided and simple. In China, the work condition is exactly to these extremes. Comparing their situation to ours is like comparing apples to oranges.

JS80 was just pointing out that they don't have much of a choice.