China Labour Bulletin is quoted in the following article. Copyright remains with the original publisher.
By Rob Schmitz
Marketplace Morning Report for Friday, December 9, 2011
TRANSCRIPT
Steve Chiotakis: With such a shoddy economy, Europeans aren't buying as many Chinese goods. And China today said its industrial output slowed -- again.
Marketplace's Rob Schmitz reports from Shanghai now, regular and overtime pay is down for thousands of factory workers. And street protests are up.
Rob Schmitz: Protesting factory workers are common in a country known as the "workshop of the world." But the situation in Europe has meant exports from China have decreased for four straight months. Hundreds of factories have closed.
And according to China Labour Bulletin's Geoffrey Crothall, the ones that have remained open are making life more difficult for workers.
Geoffrey Crothall: What we're seeing happening is that as the manufacturing sector contracts and orders decrease, then the overtime available to workers obviously goes down, the employers start to call back all the allowances and bonuses that they were willing to give to workers in more profitable times.
Nearly all these workers have traveled from the countryside to work long hours in these factory towns so they can send as much money home as possible.
Crothall says when managers cut overtime, workers can no longer survive on their remaining wages. The only way out, he says, is to protest for better pay or go home. And an increasing number of Chinese workers going home without jobs has become the fallout of a debt crisis half a world away.
In Shanghai, I'm Rob Schmitz, for Marketplace.
About the author
Rob Schmitz is Marketplace’s China correspondent in Shanghai. Follow Rob on Twitter @marketplacerob
By Rob Schmitz
Marketplace Morning Report for Friday, December 9, 2011
TRANSCRIPT
Steve Chiotakis: With such a shoddy economy, Europeans aren't buying as many Chinese goods. And China today said its industrial output slowed -- again.
Marketplace's Rob Schmitz reports from Shanghai now, regular and overtime pay is down for thousands of factory workers. And street protests are up.
Rob Schmitz: Protesting factory workers are common in a country known as the "workshop of the world." But the situation in Europe has meant exports from China have decreased for four straight months. Hundreds of factories have closed.
And according to China Labour Bulletin's Geoffrey Crothall, the ones that have remained open are making life more difficult for workers.
Geoffrey Crothall: What we're seeing happening is that as the manufacturing sector contracts and orders decrease, then the overtime available to workers obviously goes down, the employers start to call back all the allowances and bonuses that they were willing to give to workers in more profitable times.
Nearly all these workers have traveled from the countryside to work long hours in these factory towns so they can send as much money home as possible.
Crothall says when managers cut overtime, workers can no longer survive on their remaining wages. The only way out, he says, is to protest for better pay or go home. And an increasing number of Chinese workers going home without jobs has become the fallout of a debt crisis half a world away.
In Shanghai, I'm Rob Schmitz, for Marketplace.
About the author
Rob Schmitz is Marketplace’s China correspondent in Shanghai. Follow Rob on Twitter @marketplacerob