Foxconn and Honda Incidents Inspire Mainland Chinese Labor Movement

Foxconn and Honda Incidents Inspire Mainland Chinese Labor Movement
United Daily News editorial (Taipei, Taiwan, ROC)
A Translation
June 10, 2010

If a human being plunges to his death from the top of a building, it may evoke a few expressions of regret. But the sound of a dozen or so bodies hitting the pavement, one after another, may send tremors through the World's Factory. The suicide leaps from the roof of the Foxconn headquarters building, and the labor strikes at the Honda Foshan plant, recently led to substantial pay raises. They have stimulated demands for wage increases in both mainland Chinese and foreign owned enterprises. They have also increased awareness of the human rights issue among mainland Chinese laborers. They will eventually have a profound impact on mainland Chinese society.
Thousands of factory workers at the Shenzhen plant of the Merry Electronics Co., a manufacturer of mobile phone parts, went on strike. Influenced by events at Honda and Foxconn, they successfully demanded pay increases and concessions from their employers. Soon afterwards, laborers on mainland China went on strikes up and down the nation. Violent clashes erupted at a Taiwan owned plant in Kunshan, injuring dozens. At the same time, mainland China's National Federation of Trade Unions issued an emergency memorandum, asking Taiwan and foreign-funded enterprises to set up trade unions as soon as possible. It stressed the need to promote collective bargaining to defend the interests of assembly line workers.

The wave of strikes that have occurred during the spring and summer of 2010, can be expected to spread and lead to a wave of economic and social changes. Looking forward, the attractness of the Chinese mainland as the World's Factory will be diminished. Foreign and Taiwan-owned enterprises on mainland China may decide to relocate. In any event, those entrepreneurs who remain may need to change their thinking about cheap labor. The mainland Chinese government may also need to change its habit of blindly oppressing the labor movement.

History can often turned on an accident. A series of suicide leaps occurred at Foxconn. Actually Foxconn is not some notorious sweatshop. But the mainland Chinese practice of "surrounding villages with factories," the militarization of management, the dysfunctional culture of mechanized assembly lines, and the fragile psychology of the "Post Nineties" generation, have led to complications. Fortunately, Foxconn is a reputable company with enough redeeming virtues to ensure that the outside world will see the truth. It also has sufficient resources to respond to the demands of labor and society. The Foxconn Group's share prices fell despite the pay raises. But in the long run, Foxconn's rapid response was much more sensible than procrastination.

By contrast, the three week long strike at the Honda Foshan factory is making Beijing even more nervous. It is more organized in its form, and more radical in its methods. It has completely paralyzed Honda's mainland China production line, and cost the company 30 billion RMB in operational losses. It has forced management to change its hard-line stance and increase workers' wages. Compared to the dozen suicide leaps at Foxconn, the Honda workers strike is far more virulent. The workers' "plant walk" tactic has been widely emulated. Once it spreads, the government and businesses will find it difficult to deal with.

In ten short years mainland China has become the World's Factory. It is already the prime mover of the global economy. But this miracle has its downside. Foreign capital has created new jobs. It has turned surplus rural population into low-cost labor. But it has also increased society's sense of comparative deprivation. With mainland China becoming more open, such domestic and foreign class differences have become increasingly acute. If the wage system and trade unions fail to adjust, such forms of "soft exploitation" rooted in the division of labor and subcontracting will be difficult to sustain.

Now is a good time to take advantage of a booming economy and a positive economic outlook. Beijing should seek opportunities to gradually permit the formation of trade unions, giving them a greater say in labor disputes. Otherwise, once labor unrest intensifies, protesters will begin pointing the finger at the government, creating an unbearable burden on those in power. Take the Henan Pingmian Textile Group for example. Workers went on strike there around the same time as Honda. But because this mainland Chinese enterprise was located in the remote inland region, it was forcibly suppressed by local government. The group was once an SOE, restructured as a public company. During the restructuring process, workers were deprived of their equity rights. If the problem is swept under the rug, it will merely generate greater resentment.

For the past 10 years companies all over the world have competed to set up factories on mainland China. What matters to them is cheap local labor. But with economic growth and increased labor awareness, the boom will inevitably recede. Once the domestic market begins to grow, mainland China will have to find a way to shed its "World's Factory" label. After all, turning its people into cheap OEM labor for foreign manufacturers is merely the first phase of the "first become rich" strategy. Now it must turn its attention to matters of equity and justice.

The Foxconn and Honda incidents have inspired a mainland Chinese labor movement. This movement shows no signs of abating.

富士康和本田事件吹動了中國工運的風車
【聯合報╱社論】
2010.06.10 02:03 am

一個人體從高樓墜地，也許只能引起幾聲嘆息；但十幾個肉身連續撞擊地面的聲音，卻能震動整個世界工廠。富士康的跳樓事件和佛山本田廠的罷工事件，最近相繼以大幅加薪收場，不僅為中外資企業掀起了一股薪資漲風，也為中國勞工的人權意識打開了一片風景，最終將對社會變遷產生深遠的影響。

受本田和富士康事件影響，製造手機零件的美律深圳廠近日也爆發數千工人要求加薪的罷工，並成功迫使資方讓步。緊接著，中國從南到北都傳出罷工事件，昆山一家台資工廠甚至爆發衝突，造成數十人受傷。與此同時，中國全國總工會發出緊急通知，要求台商及外資企業儘快組建工會，強調應推動工資集體協商制度，保障生產線上工人的權益。

可以預期，這場發生在2010年春夏之交的工潮，將繼續擴散，牽引中國經濟和社會產生一波新的變化。往後，大陸作為世界工廠的誘因或將削弱，也許會有外資或台資企業開始從中國外移；無論如何，留下來的經營者對廉價勞動者予取予求的心態勢必修正，而中國官方對工運一味壓制的傳統手法也必須調整。

歷史軌跡的轉向，有時常出於偶然。富士康發生連續跳樓事件，其實並非因為它是惡名昭彰的血汗工廠；而是中國模式「圍鎮造廠」的超大型廠舍聚落的奇特生態，加上軍事化管理及機械式作業線的病態文化，和所謂「90後」世代的脆弱心理狀態碰撞，產生的複合併發症。所幸富士康是素負聲譽的企業，有足夠的正面條件讓外界看見真相，並有較充分的餘裕回應勞工及社會的要求。富士康加薪雖導致集團股價大跌，但從長期看，提早調整轉型總比遲誤來得明智。

相形之下，本田汽車佛山廠近三周的罷工，則更令中共心驚膽跳。形式上更有組織，手段也更強烈，不僅造成本田中國生產線的徹底癱瘓，並導致該公司卅億人民幣的營運損失，逼得原本姿態強硬的資方不得不俯首讓步調薪。比起富士康的十二跳，本田罷工對中國勞工絕對有更大的傳染力，勞工們在「工廠散步」的手法已廣泛流傳，一旦蔓延，政府和企業將窮於應付。

中國在短短十幾年間成為世界工廠，儼然已是全球經濟的重要引擎，但發展至今，此一奇蹟模式也暴露了它的內在問題。外國資本雖帶來工作機會，將農村過剩人口轉為廉價工人，但也為社會加重了相對剝奪感。隨著中國日漸開放，這樣的內外階級差異變得日益尖銳，薪資制度及工會組織若不相應調整，這種建立在分工、轉包上的軟性剝削終有難以支撐的一天。

事實上，趁著景氣暢旺、形勢大好，正是進行調整的好時機。中共應伺機逐步開放企業組建工會，並讓它們擁有較實質的勞資爭議交涉權；否則，一旦勞工抗爭風起雲湧，各種抗爭焦點都會指向政府，將變成主政者無法承受的負擔。以河南平棉集團為例，與本田約莫同時發生罷工，這家陸企卻因偏處內地遭到地方政府強行鎮壓。該集團從國營到股份的改制過程中吞掉了員工股權的問題，如果就此置之不理，不怕激起更大的民怨嗎？

十多年來，各國企業爭相赴中國設廠，看中的是當地廉價的勞動力；但隨著經濟成長及勞工意識的抬頭，那樣的熱潮走向冷卻，恐怕是必然的發展。從更高的角度看，在內需市場逐漸強大後，中國必須設法逐步摘掉「世界工廠」的帽子；畢竟，讓廣大人民為外國廠商充當廉價代工勞力，只是追求「先富起來」的階段性任務，現在該回頭照顧「均」和「正義」的問題了。

富士康和本田事件已經吹動了中國勞工維權的風車，這股風潮現在看來是停不下來了。