U.S.
Corporate Mafia Fighting Chinese Efforts To Help Workers
By Joel S. Hirschhorn
05 November, 2006
Countercurrents.org
Greedy
and powerful American companies not content with using economic inequality
to devastate working- and middle-class Americans are now using their
clout to fight efforts in China to combat economic inequality there.
They want to keep wages low there so they can drive wages down here
and everywhere else.
The leadership of the Chinese
Communist Party that values a "harmonious society" has awakened
to the need to combat economic inequality. Workplace exploitation to
keep wages very low creates high profits for the new Chinese ownership
class. The latest annual China Rich List revealed 500 Chinese nationals
worth at least $100 million. The first China Rich List, published just
eight years ago, counted only 50 Chinese worth over $6 million.
As to working-class Chinese,
in 2005 there were 87,000 "mass protests" inside China involving
over four million workers, up from just 10,000 protests in 1994. As
Robert J. Rosoff noted in The Chinese Business Review: "The rights
of Chinese workers are routinely violated. Workers are often required
to work far more than 40 hours a week, have few days off, are paid below
the minimum wage, and are not paid required overtime. Improper deductions
from wages are common. Some Chinese workers must pay a large sum of
money as a 'deposit' to their employer, and they may have to pay a 'recruitment
fee' in order to be hired. These payments can prevent workers from leaving
jobs where their rights are violated. Physical abuse of workers, and
dangerous working conditions, are also common."
A workers "revolt"
has Chinese officials deeply worried. A generation ago, the leadership
of the Chinese Communist Party abandoned the "class struggle,"
embraced the market, and declared that "to get rich is glorious."
Now the communist leadership sees widening inequality as chief among
the "contradictions and problems that impair social harmony."
An analyst with the China Foundation for International and Strategic
Studies said recently, "Know well that it is dangerous when the
disparities and differences become too wide to be bridged, and threaten
to disrupt the social fabric."
Too bad U.S. political leaders
don't seem to feel the same way about growing American economic inequality.
Big-time American corporations
are threatening to shut down their extensive Chinese operations should
China's top officials adopt a draft new law that increases labor rights
for Chinese workers. Get it? We are now exporting the worst aspects
of our capitalist system. Amazingly, Wal-Mart, Nike, and other major
U.S. companies currently generate two-thirds of the products China exports
to the rest of the world.
The draft new law emerged
this past spring, in a surprising move to start narrowing the widening
"disparities and differences" now quite visible in China.
Chinese officials unveiled a "Draft Labor Contract Law" and
openly asked for public comment on it. It offers Chinese workers what
the international union rights group Global Labor Strategies calls a
"modest" package of workplace job protections. It would give
workers more of a right to negotiate over workplace policies and procedures.
But the proposal does not "provide Chinese workers with the right
to independent trade unions with leaders of their own choosing and the
right to strike," said the group. Though it would apply to all
companies in China, its focus is on foreign-owned companies and the
suppliers to those companies.
China Labor Watch, a pro-labor
group, said it "welcomes the new labor contract law that the Chinese
government is drafting. The proposed new law includes specific stipulations
to protect Chinese workers' rights. It emphasizes the role of the All
China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), the official labor union affiliated
with the Communist Party, strengthens the power of the law enforcement
agencies and raises penalties on labor law violations. The new labor
law, if passed, will provide greater protection for Chinese workers."
From a New York Times article:
"I don't know about the labor law," said Zhang Yin, an 18-year-old
migrant who washes dishes in Shanghai. "During the three months
I've been here, my boss has delayed the salary payment twice. I want
to quit."
Who got really upset over
the draft law? U.S. corporations have gone nuts. Along with The U.S.-China
Business Council that represents 250 US companies doing business across
all sectors in China, the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai,
a powerhouse that includes 150 Fortune 500 companies, including Dell,
Ford, General Electric, Microsoft and Nike, is fighting the new law.
The Chamber filed 42 pages worth of objections to the draft law. They
communicated a not-so-veiled warning. The adoption of the new labor
standards said the Chamber just might "negatively impact"
China's "appeal as a destination for foreign investment."
This shows what crap the grand position of American companies that the
American corporate presence in China is building a respect for basic
democratic values. American companies want low wages more than they
want democracy in China.
"This is really two
steps backward after three steps forward," said Kenneth Tung, Asia-Pacific
director of legal affairs for the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company and
a legal adviser to the Chamber.
Interestingly, workers have
set up unions at all 66 Wal-Mart outlets in China that have 33,000 workers,
beginning what a Chinese union official described as a wider campaign
aimed at other foreign companies. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart has successfully
kept out unions at its U.S. stores. Chinese labor leaders have now targeted
Eastman Kodak and Dell for unionization.
"By opposing a labor contract reform law that would elevate labor
and human rights standards," noted Global Labor Strategies, "American
and other foreign corporations are aggravating the very conditions they
claimed they would ameliorate." Exactly! The group also made the
point that the U.S. corporate attack on the draft code - if successful
-- will "hurt not only Chinese workers, but workers around the
world who are put into competition with them." Keeping wages low
in China, in other words, is part of corporate globalization's intent
to drive down wages in industrialized countries!
Will the new Chinese labor
code go into full effect as early as next year? That depends, says Global
Labor Strategies, in part on how much pressure American labor groups
can place on U.S. corporations to "reverse their opposition to
the draft labor code." Sure. Just look at how powerful American
labor groups are here. If the Democraps take over the House, is this
something they will pay attention to? Will our political leaders stand
up and fight for workers' rights in China because it helps American
workers? Or will they avoid this situation like the plague for fear
of offending their corporate supporters that want slave wages everywhere?
Without strong American action, the global race to the bottom for labor
wages will speed up. Class warfare is bubbling up. Will the Democraps
take the side of workers?
Contact the author and learn
about his new book at www.delusionaldemocracy.com
Leave
A Comment
&
Share Your Insights