Having lived in China, I can
honestly say I am glad I am a United States American citizen. When I was
in China, I was grouped up with classmates and tasked with figuring out a
social problem happening in China. We ultimately choose migrant workers’ labor
rights. It is common knowledge that the workers in China are treated unfairly and
there is no system (labor unions) in place to help them. China has ONE labor
union, but it doesn’t work as the labor unions we know here in America. The
labor union works as a meet up for skilled workers. Rampant
labor rights abuses are perpetrated as a result of migrant workers
disadvantaged position in Chinese society. In addition, migrant workers
generally lack urban hukous, and, by definition, always lack the hukous
of where they have gone to find work. They frequently work in small
enterprises, and often lack contracts or any sort of official relationship with
their employer. After researching and interviewing with my group, we found out
that there are non-governmental organizations that work as labor unions American
style (although some of the places we went, somehow disappeared before and after
we found there headquarters!). China is moving forward and has improved with the
abuse in this area. Currently the President (Chairman, Committee leader, some
other leader of a group, plus five more titles) is taking a stand on corruption;
this gives me hope that China is heading in a good direction, and more will
come of it.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-16/china-plans-over-163-billion-shantytown-investment-cctv-says.html
It’s always interesting to hear about firsthand experiences, especially those involving China. While I may sound pessimistic in saying this, isn’t it overly optimistic to think that conditions for Chinese workers will improve when looking at the bigger picture? We receive manufacturing goods from China because of the cheap, exploited workforce. While there has been civil unrest due to the conditions, China still only improves conditions on a minimal level. Yet, if continued, it’s obvious that eventually workers become so fed-up that they resort to extreme measures or the price of manufacturing and shipping products from China becomes so high that the US leaves China for another country or back to America. If such a major shift happens, huge job loss could occur for the Chinese. Either way, it seems like the Chinese workforce will be experiencing hardships for some time.
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