In June 2010, Al Jazeera reported how Chinese workers demanding improved conditions at Foxconn, a Taiwanese owned company operating in mainland China, brought about changes leading to mandatory workdays off and raises in pay that doubled in October, last month.
One former Foxconn worker says there is a big difference between his generation and their parents, who worked harder for less.
He says the younger generation is never satisfied with the status quo and is always pushing for a better life. That’s why this young man left Foxconn for a better paying job.
Qin Huai Zhou, general manager of Star Interspace Door Co, says the relationships between bosses and workers have changed too.
When you need to keep special and talented staff, you must recognize them with more money and respect.
In fact, that’s what happened at a Honda plant in southern China where the workers staged a strike shutting down car production around the country leading to a 35% pay raise.
Harry Fawcett, an Al Jazeera reporter, says that this success was due to the size of China’s working population, which has peaked leading to a shortage of workers along the coast.
Another factor was politics.
Lee Chang-Hee says, “Ten years ago the government response would have been harsh.”
Now, the government wants to address income distribution because they see if income doesn’t improve for workers, there will be no more sustained economic development in China.
To avoid what happened to Japan, the goal is to transform China’s economy from one that depends on exports to an internal economy driven by a large middle class.
Learn more about China’s Middle Class Expanding
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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.
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