Working Conditions in China Essay

Sweatshops are large dim lit factories. Hours are incredibly long, normally from 6 am to 10 pm. The air is dusty and dirty, which makes it very hard to breath. Blisters and sores are not uncommon to be found on the hands of these workers. Most importantly, at the end of the day you will have only earned a whopping 27 cents. This is insane and should be considered a form of slavery. It should not be allowed for people to be treated this way and worked like this. Children are even put to work in these sweatshops. Children who are well under 16 and need to help support their families, so they are put to work at these young ages. Americans cannot possibly think that this is okay.

The workers are under so much pressure and are expected to work and give so much that they don’t even want to skip a day of work because they don’t want to be seen “slacking” and be behind and earn nothing, as Lyddie once thought, because she used to fear going out sick and falling behind in her production and having her pay drop (stated on page 100). They are given breaks that are not nearly as long as they should be, and they are so void of energy that they can’t do things that are actually enjoyable for them (such as Lyddie not reading her book). The factories are too worried about getting more work done and profiting that they don’t pay attention to the workers’ needs. Plus, for the amount of time that they work and how much stuff they get done, they don’t get paid nearly as much as they

• The enormous surplus of labor in China imperils workers worldwide as international competition puts incessant downward pressure on wages and working conditions, leading the apparel and textile industries to favor the cheapest and most Draconian producers.

One of the hallmarks of china’s socialist economy made a statement promise of employment to all and job-security with virtually lifelong tenure.They were overstaffed to fulfilling socialist goals and job-security lower the workers ‘motivation to work.This socialist policy was called the iron rice bowl.China’s employed labor force is rarely over 800

Jobs outsourced to China have subsided American employment opportunities and have helped contribute to wage erosion since 2001(Peralta). Between 2001 to 2013, 3.2 million American jobs were lost and three-quarters of those jobs were in manufacturing (Peralta). When you outsource jobs to different countries because it is cheaper, you are helping destroy your own country and could even be supporting slave and child labor and companies do this because they are greedy and want to make more money even though they could be getting low quality, brand damaging products

Firstly, if sweatshops were not as low paid and the working conditions were not as pleasant compared to first world countries, then companies might as well employ citizens of first world countries, who would probably be healthier. This would not benefit the people in the third world countries, who would slip into poverty and starvation.

In present China, forced and unpaid prison labor is widespread and common. Characteristics of Chinese sweatshops include overcrowding, lack of sanitary conditions, no worker breaks, demands to complete a task within a limited period of time, and a total lack of job security. Government negligence is what allows such abuses to persist. Some plants force employees into working extraordinary amounts of hours, for example, a Price Waterhouse audit of Nike factories in China found that some require seven days of work per week. Many workers who supposedly have the choice to work overtime must do so in order to survive on their low wage rates. The people working in Chinese sweatshops only get a small amount of payment for their work and nothing more. The locals do not benefit at all, but instead suffer from the presence of foreign businesses in their country. As for the foreigners, one telling statistic is that the United States imports an estimated $100 million per year in goods produced by Chinese migrant workers. The outside companies gain millions as the developing countries struggle to survive.

The finalization of the transcontinental railroad ultimately allowed Chinese labors to explore further employment opportunities in western regions.

According to Chinese bureau of statistics, some 70% of student who come to the United States from 1978 to 2010 stayed in The United States. The hard choice of whether stay in The United States or come back to China makes more and more Chinese people concentrate on a basic question: what is the difference between The United States and China. Although both The United States and China are world’s major economies, in terms of living and working, The United States has advantages over China in relationship between people, work relationship, and getting information.

Throughout the past decade, China has been an engaging end for worldwide enterprises because of its low pay rates, however China is still unable to carry out the guidelines for international labor laws. Regardless of the insufficiencies of Chinese law, the legislature now permits strikes. (AFL-CIO 2016) The minimum wage approved by law rates might consider the particular exchanges of a each state, and diverse the lowest pay permitted by law rates might be settled for regions with different financial progress levels and for various exchanges. (Lehman, Lee & Xu November 24, 1993) Therefore, Chinese wages are rising. This is something worth being thankful in both Chinese working families and for laborers in different nations that compete with China in the clothing industry. (AFL-CIO 2016) This shows that even though China is not yet following labor laws for the wages dispersed to their workers, they are continuously improving. Clothing manufacturing consists of more than just

In these sweatshops, workers are generally offered low wages with little nonwage benefits. In certain factories, workers have been denied of a “living wage” as their take-home pay have been insufficient to satisfy basic standards of living. Typically, in these countries, the minimum wage laws were violated and workers were weakly unionised to bargain for higher wages. For example, a typical Chinese worker earns a wage of Rmb$250-$350 while the minimum wage was supposed to be Rmb$350.

China is one of our biggest labor competitors. The reason many US companies go to China for outsourcing is again, because of their workforce’s willingness to operate at low costs. Michael Zimmerman describes this as a disparity in worker “tolerance”. Where the low wages found in China are “far lower than U.S.

Although this sometimes isn’t the factories fault because most of the workers are uninsured so they are denied medical and social services (“China: Beijing’s Migrant 1”). Most of the factories do try to pay their workers by hour at about twenty cents per hour, but some only pay them once a year (Goldman 1). This however is breaking the rule of Labor Law fifty in China, which states that workers must be paid on a monthly basis. The average wage per month is only about sixty-five dollars which isn’t a sufficient amount of money to support an average family (“China: Beijing’s Migrant 1”). These people try to work overtime to earn more money, but often times they are forced to do this regardless (Goldman 2). Chinese workers often work in fear, because they have to ask permission to leave even after their shifts are done and to even go to the bathroom (Goldman 1). The Chinese workforce is starting to realize these problems and they won’t stand for it.

Another aspect that is looked upon in the documentary is the roles of females in the Chinese society. As it is known, China is a one child policy where a family is supposed to have only one child in the family. So families always hope for baby boys since males are much more respected then females are. They also have a lot less opportunities than males, so that plays a role on females going in to work at sweat shops. Also taken from the documentary, when Jasmine worked a twenty hour shift, she was contemplating on leaving but comes to conclusion that she is in the best situation she could be. It is sad to know that working at a sweat shop is the best situation for anyone.

Labor relations in China have become more and more complex, labor conflicts have occurred frequently, and thus labor disputes have been growing with a rate much faster than that of the development of GDP in the past decade. They could become a potential obstacle to the economic development if not appropriately managed. The paper studies the condition of labor relations, and probes the profound reasons for it, and compares it across the world in order to give a description for it.