“There will never be strikes in my company,” Foxconn CEO Guo Taiming once proclaimed. But just last month, 1800 workers struck at two Foxconn factories in China — following the example of other Foxconn workers in Taiyuan and Chengdu last year.
Foxconn produces cell phones and other products for Apple and others, and owns property worth US$6 billion. It has 1.2 million workers and is the largest sweatshop of ill repute in China.
The company drew international headlines when 18 young workers attempted suicide in 2010. But the much bigger numbers of workers who are fighting back by striking haven’t gotten the same media attention.
Nearly 300 people struck on July 24 at one of China’s biggest factories, in Longhua, Shenzhen. They are part of Foxconn’s CP business group, which makes laptops, TVs, digital cameras and more.
They stopped work at 9am and marched from their department toward union headquarters. The workers protested that the company did not allow them to work extra hours.
This is a new phenomenon in Chinese factories since the 2008 recession, which took several years to affect China. Exports were cut and production declined.
If they don’t work overtime, Chinese workers in the Pearl River Delta, where these factories are located, are paid only about RMB1000 (about $163) per month, which is not even enough for food. The minimum wage in Shenzhen city is RMB1600, and other cities are lower, but workers cannot even get this much because of the recession.
The strikes of Chinese workers may be not as noisy as those elsewhere, because most times they are not organised in advance. The workers have to be restrained not avoid being targeted by the police. They marched around and chanted a little, and then kept quiet and waited.
After administrators promised to negotiate, they went back to work at 3.30pm. There has been no news about the negotiations so far.
Most times, no news for too long means the strike failed. If they fight again, the workers may win formal negotiations with the managers or else simply be suppressed by police.
At the same time, 1500 workers of Pulihua in Foshan City, next to Shenzhen, were also on strike. This company also belongs to Foxconn.
Workers occupied the hall of the main building, They stood against the police until 6pm, when management said the factory would be moved away and all workers fired.
Pulihua workers had already stopped work twice this year, first on March 28 and again on June 6. They were not satisfied with the severance pay offered, and management promised to compensate them.
The July strike was over the closing date, with workers fearing the company might flee without paying them.
The government later got involved in the strike, but there is still no resolution. It is likely workers will finally get compensation, as it is a large company and cannot flee as easily as small ones.
Guo rules the Foxconn empire with cruel military-style management. Workers have to work nearly 11 hours each day if they want to earn enough for food and housing. There are frequent accidents and injuries on the production line.
Workers living in the same dormitory for a year do not get to know each other, because Guo fears they would combine to resist.
Today’s generation of young Chinese factory workers are caught between urban and rural worlds. Some 262 million migrant workers from the countryside labour in the cities, where they are denied equal access to many welfare, health, and retirement benefits.
“In the dormitory, I was just like you/Everyone a stranger,” wrote former Foxconn worker Yan Jun in a poem dedicated to those who committed suicide. “Lining up, drawing water, brushing teeth/Rushing off to our different factories/Sometimes I think I’ll go home/But if I go home, what then?”
But in recent years workers are fighting back wherever there’s a Foxconn factory.
[Reprinted from Labor Notes. Han Tang works with a worker center in Guangdong province, which includes Shenzhen.]
