U.S. trade unions put pressure on Apple(2)

“a chain in China ” of he world labor movement

 

“According to Mr. Brown who comes from the AFL – CIO, China has become a core part in the world labor movement.” Weiguang Chen said he has had a further talk with Brown since the last visit; some of his opinion deserves further research.

 

The blue-collar workers at the basic industrial line are the basic members of national trade union. At the end of 2009, the number of China trade unions members was 226 million, almost twice than the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) which number was 1.4 million.

 

“The deed of China trade unions will decide the direction of labor movement in the world.” Brown said as the world’s largest low-cost and high-quality labor supplier in China, whether the global relations between labors and employers could be balanced, it depended on the choice on International Capital Strategies of China-Wholesale cell phones.

 

“The opinion of Brown is on behalf of the ‘anti-globalization’ side of United States ILO, this is dialectic.” Weiguang Chen said, what we should concern was that: what measures should be taken to alleviate these difficulties for the trade unions of each country, then the trade unions can create a cooperation situation filled with equitable and mutually beneficial.

 

Chinese OEM enterprises are in the bottom position of the international industrial chain; Xianghong Kong has a strong feeling to this. Kong told the reporter that the Perl River Delta region is the manufacturing center for clothing, toys, foot in the world, the world’s largest brand producers are gathered here, though these brands cell phone are restricted by the international social responsibility certification, the threshold of human and technical requirements is at a low here, the brands are over-supplied and have a higher degree of replacement, no firms dare to fight against brand producers, orders are turned over from one hand to another, a large number of intermediary service companies in Hong Kong make money by changing orders to others, the split of the profit in the middle market is staggering.

 

Taking the OEM brands of Foxconn – Apple iPad for example, the average sale price of iPad is about 700 U.S. dollars, the average production cost is about 260 dollars, the net profit ratio of each iPad is about 60%; Among the 260 U.S. dollars ex-factory price of Foxconn, the net profit is 14 dollars, the profit rate that the agent manufacturer and workers can gain from is about 5%, it forms a cruel reality on benefits division.

 

“China OEM indeed bought a pig in a poke.” Said Weiguang Chen, In the situation of Globalization, China produce cheap products at the cost of low wages, this is unfair; if the export meet anti-dumping, they are at a loss again, it is equal to suffering the double exploitation by overseas: one exploitation is in the upper reaches of the labor market, the other is in the terminal reaches of the product market, but in the eyes of public, the factory is described as “sweatshop”.

 

Employers include manufacturers and brand producers, “the profit chain of multinational make up an important space for the collective bargaining of labor wages in China.” Weiguang Chen take the Pearl River Delta as an example, the participants who attend the labor negotiation is considered as two sides nominally, but the employer actually has two said, one is domestic producer, and the other is an international brand merchant. Obviously, the profit negotiation space between the brand merchants and manufacturers is far greater than the foundry businesses and labors.

 

Weiguang Chen considered the reasonable measure is to combine the domestic producers and workers into one and form a community of interests to make a industrial negotiation with foreign brand machants, this measure can not only support national capital, but also resist foreign media criticism. Behind this, on the one hand the action needs the support of government policy, on the other hand it rely on the constraint from the globalization corporate social responsibility to the international brands.

 

Policy supporting of Government can change the current pure market laws (law of the jungle) in the international industrial chain. Weiguang Chen said if we wanted to engage in international litigation, the Chinese capital and labor should hand in hand to support the union’s action, so as to form guidance and control. The constraints of globalization corporate social responsibility depend on the cooperation of the ILO.

 

Such as the Foxconn jumped events, through the powerful pressure put by the trade union of San Francisco, Apple was forced to surrender part of the profits to the upper reaches; they claimed that Apple subsidized 3.98-7.96 dollars for per iPad product to Foxconn workers. According to the former data released, Foxconn held the assembly orders of iPad, the number of iPad in the order is 610 million, if the money can be distributed to the workers; the conflict between labors and employers is a relief to a certain degree.

 

“The reason why the International trade unions take action actively is that they need my help.” Xianghong Kong reviewed that when Nokia headquarters sought co-operation to the trade unions, they informed that China’s action may be quite significant, because of the low wages, the measure that national trade unions of each country take to put pressure on company  became smaller and smaller. Therefore, if the China trade unions can work together with Nokia cell phone, the international capital will be lost room for maneuver, the workers in the world including China workers, may be expected to take part in the reasonable allocation of capital.

 

“An international logic in that position is that the occupation of the endorsement of the labor interests.” Xianghong Kong reminded that the latest trend of globalization was the establishment of a global labor statute mechanism, which emphasizes that if the national power, labor power can not reach the inner of the factory, the market forces will solve the problem of long-term international labor rights. This requires the trade unions under the leadership of the party to complete the coverage of the domestic labor market, monitoring their own market.

 

Xianghong Kong also stressed that the China trade unions are not strong enough to make a comprehensive gamble with the international capital, but the direction is right, the measure need to be run in small-scale.

 

Kong said, the Guangdong Federation of Trade Unions is preparing to establish a province-wide insurance industry federation of trade unions, the unions was made up by the insurance practitioners, and has the responsibility to negotiate with various insurance companies for the adjustment of the commission rate.

Aug 18 2010

More IPad Insurance Reviews

Amazon Bargains Hot Offers

Related Posts

Tagged with: • • • •

Filed under: IPad Insurance

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!