Kathleen McLaughlin writes for Global Post:
Taiwan’s Foxconn, a key supplier to Apple, Sony, Motorola and most other big tech companies, has agreed to raise basic salaries by 65 percent (to $293 a month) in its massive Shenzhen electronics plant where 10 employees have killed themselves this year.
Since the Foxconn situation drew an international spotlight to Chinese factory conditions, the focus has been on pay and the impact that higher wages might have on global manufacturing. The bigger picture goes beyond money. While factory pay has been a huge problem, labor experts say the entire system is riddled with troubling issues, many of them stemming from the lack of basic rights given the migrant workers who typically staff production lines, documented in last year’s GlobalPost investigative series Silicon Sweatshops.
“Increasing salaries is an effective method to improve the workers material lives, but it is not enough,” said Dai Jianzhong, a labor relations expert at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences.
Dai and others said wages are just one component of what’s needed in terms of labor reform in China. Other necessary measures would address living conditions and social welfare. Most migrant workers are ineligible for local health care and education, and living on-site at factory dorms means limited personal lives. Most groups say that democratically elected labor unions would go a long way in changing the system.
