Loading ...Just what on Earth is this guy talking about, you ask. Bear with me friends…
First, absorb THIS:
China Passes a Sweeping Labor Law
By JOSEPH KAHN and DAVID BARBOZA
BEIJING, June 29 — China’s legislature passed a sweeping new labor law today that strengthens protections for workers across its booming economy, rejecting pleas from foreign investors who argued that the measure would reduce China’s appeal as a low-wage, business-friendly industrial base.
The new labor contract law, enacted by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, requires employers to provide written contracts to their workers, restricts the use of temporary laborers and makes it harder to lay off employees.
The law, which is to take effect in 2008, also enhances the role of the Communist Party’s monopoly union and allows collective bargaining for wages and benefits. It softens some provisions that foreign companies said would hurt China’s competitiveness, but retained others that American multinationals had lobbied vigorously to exclude. …”
Gee, I wonder if The Smiley One was one of those “American multinationals” being referenced? The NYT article doesn’t mention Wally-World by name, but common sense tells me they MUST have been quite dismayed at the thought that no more of this “funny bidness” would be going on any longer in China:
“… Passage of the measure came shortly after officials and state media unearthed the widespread use of slave labor in as many as 8,000 brick kilns and small coal mines in Shanxi and Henan provinces, one of the most glaring labor scandals since China began adopting market-style economic policies a quarter century ago.
Police have freed nearly 600 workers, many of them children, held against their will in factories owned or operated by well-connected businessmen and local officials.
Abuses of migrant laborers have been endemic in boom-time China, where millions of temporary workers have faced unsafe working conditions, collusion between factory owners and local officials and unpaid wages. Party-run courts often fail to enforce their legal rights.
Senior leaders in Beijing have grown increasingly concerned about the issue because migrant workers have contributed to a surge in social unrest and violent crime. …”
If vigorously enforced, this new law could deal a severe blow to America’s biggest retailer monopoly and the shoppers who make it such. It will be a bright day for America as well as for myself, indeed; the day my single Wally-World share dwindles down to ZERO value. I’m hoping this new law in China will go a long way toward zeroing out my forty-five dollar investment…
On another note, does anything in the last “snippet” ring a bell? Sounds a bit familiar doesn’t it? Sort of like some of the events occuring right here in the good ole’ U.S. of A, perhaps? Abuses of illegal “migrant” workers by “well-connected bidnessmen”?
It’s a sad day indeed when a communist nation steps up to take better care of its labor forces than the “Shining Beacon of Freedom And Liberty” does, is it not? With the Senate’s recent abandonment of immigration reform on our own shores, my next question is how long before civilized nations around the world start coming to the U.S. for their manufacturing needs? After all, if foreign governments around the world are seeing to it that their labor forces are “legal” and treated well, and none of the above are occuring in the anti-union U.S. of A., it only makes sense that foreign corporations would explore the notion of having their manufacturing “bidness” done right here in America, correct? Get ready for a HUGE “Buy American” BOOM again, folks…
After all, that can only be a “good thing“, correct?
Filing this one under both “Duh!” and “Think” -
See Also – MemeOrandum’s blogger roundup -
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Thanks to the China Law Blog for linking in -
Ah…..before we get carried away here, remember……what the communist party SAYS and what it DOES has rarely been the same thing. This may very well be a diversionary tactic to calm things down before the worst abuses are swept under the rug and the party bosses can carry on with business as usual. Besides, if we lose cheap Chinese labor, there are always those surviving orangatangs………
China has a comprehensive human rights law on the books, too. We’ve all seen how well that one works.
As for your anti-Walmart bias, I find it amusingly hillarious.
Why, exactly?
Bob!!! Welcome back, bro! It’s (anti-Wal-Mart) not “amusingly hillarious” unless you think THIS is “amusingly hillarious”…
Not very funny, is it, my friend?
Lee, I find it amusing because generally if the AFL-CIO or Service Workers International tells the left to hate someone, they do, regardless of of the validity of their reasoning.
GTL, Anyone who’s buying just about anything from anywhere is probably sending some of that money to China, of which about 3% (of gdp) goes to their military.
Harley Davidson motorcycles have about 5% of their parts from China. The (used to be) Big 3 automakers get about 20% of their parts from China (though much of that from their suppliers, not directly).
Sears/K-Mart, Kohl’s, Target, Ace hardware, and most mom and pop stores have products on the shelf, and in your cart, with a “Made in China” stamp on them. Why aren’t you guys bitching about them?
Perhaps because those items they have on their shelves aren’t made here anymore, due to our eroding manufacturing base? Hey, noboby minds a few items being imported from other countries, we like having a few choices, but choice is becoming extinct around here due to the Walton gang, tyvm.
And no, nobody told me, whom I might mention doesn’t belong to any of those organizations you mentioned to “hate” anyone. They earn their distinction all their lonesome selves.
What got them your “distinction”? Do you resent the fact that they’ve obviously found an underserved market, and have done a great job at serving it?
Or maybe they won’t kowtow to the line that they Edwards et. al. spout that they don’t pay enough (though it’s more than Sears/K-Mart and the vast majority of family owned stores)?
I’ve yet to see the blue vested smiley face folks walk around town with AK-47′s forcing consumers to buy their products. They don’t take hostages and only release them after you spend your paycheck is spent with them.
In other words Wal-Mart’s success is as much to do with consumers making a choice as anything. Mom & Pop stores don’t go out of business because of Wal-Mart. They go out because they didn’t do enough to convince consumers that they would be better served by them with, even though their prices maybe slightly higher or selection somewhat smaller.
As for our eroding manufacturing base, Delphi’s folks finally wised up and figured out that they could live on $18.00/hr plus benefits instead of $26, so they are sticking around. Our steel industry didn’t learn that lesson, and the rest of the UAW is slow to.
Excellent point Politico; “Mom & Pop stores don’t go out of business because of Wal-Mart. They go out because they didn’t do enough to convince consumers that they would be better served by them with” — that really describes the Wal-Mart issue in a nutshell. (I wish I had said that myself, and someday I probably will
)
Two other things… (1) When you are living through history, it moves incredibly slowly. The current events in China are just the tip of the iceberg. This is what “Globalization” is all about, and this event is an indication of the kinds of changes that will be made in the world over the coming decades. In the long term, global wages and prices will balance out. Businesses will have markets that have expanded from about 1.5 billion consumers to 6 or 7 or 8 billion consumers. That will be good for all of us, in the long run. The problem is that, in the short run, while these things are happening, there will be some pains. Growing pains that will, sadly, hurt the American manufacturing sector more than some other areas. The reason for this is the great success that the American manufacturing sector has enjoyed for the last 40 or 50 years. The next 40 or 50 years will be a little rough, but in the long run, we (or our grandchildren anyway) will all be better off.
(2) It isn’t just the U.S. companies that are “abusing” Chinese workers and illegal immigrants into China – all major manufacturing nations have set up shop in China and they are all following the same ‘rules’ or lack thereof. Fixing these abuses are also a part of the notion of “Globalization.”
It will be a beautiful new world in 40 or 50 years when the problems of the third world are well on there way to being resolved due to the benefits initiated by forward looking world leaders and the vision of western businesses.
Free Markets – the answer to everything! Yep, thanks to entrepenarial vision, no third world country need go without their arms to fuel their constant civil wars. Thanks to serving “underserved” markets, so many can reap the benefits of paltry wages and little or no health coverage. Yes, I really look forward to the world of 50 years from now, when overpopulation and mindless consumption has pushed the ecosystem over the edge and for all practical purposes ceases to exist. If only I could predict exactly where the new shorelines will be when all all the ice has melted, I’m sure I could cash in on owning that new beach front property! Well, no, I’m glad I won’t have to witness the horrors your head-in-the-sand atitudes will have brought us, and I pity your children, who WILL.
Yep, as I suspected, SOLIDLY in Al Gore’s camp.
Those who believe all the democrat’s hype and disinformation are doomed to be under the control of the nanny-state. You don’t need to predict where the shorelines will be, Al Gore has already done that for you. (as Pink Floyd said, “…what did you dream? It’s alright, we told you what to dream…)
My vision of the future does not include a lack of environmental stewardship. It is most certainly a critical part of the big picture. Global warming/Environmental Change is an issue that has to be dealt with now and ongoing as we move into the future. And my children will be an integral part of that future.
Lee, did you read about the guy in Poland a few months ago, fell into a coma in the mid 1980′s and just woke up. He’s oddly not complaining about “free markets”, he loves them. He remembers bread lines and soup kitchens from the failed idea of socialism, and is now amazed at the array of things in the local stores.
China is going through the same growing pains the US and west did at the beginning of the industrial revolution. Just like them now, 100 years ago we abused workers to get ahead, and over time, shifted from that to a more worker centric way of doing things.
China, India, Brazil, Viet Nam and others will go through the same growing pains as they move from agriculture to industry. And we’re going through another round as we move from an industrial to service and information economy.
Bob, there is a difference between Wally-World and Sears — Sears treats their people a WHOLE lot better than The Smiley One does. Do a Google search for more info on that one
F&B — I don’t blame Wal-Mart. NOWHERE have you ever seen me do that. I’ve always blamed the Republican Party for allowing a retail monopoly to exist and the poor (financially) consumers for pitching in for abuses against human rights and to the GOP as their number two corporate donor. Nope — I blame you, and other Wally-World apologists for excusing their preference for purchasing from foreign manufacturers for their well-documented abuses of their laborers for this problem. I’ve ALWAYS put the blame where the blame is due on the Wally-World PROBLEM, my friend
But… I love ya anyway
GTL, Sears may well treat their folks better than Wal-Mart, my only personal experience was with the K-Mart end of that company, which fired my wife for having a (personal)medical emergency and that audacity to leave work to have it treated before her shift was over.
What retail monopoly? Wal-Mart is far from any definition of a monopoly (except maybe a board game). In most towns where they might be the only place to shop they generally replaced a previous one stop shop.
China Law Blog // Jul 2, 2007 at 10:59 AM
China’s New Labor Law: Enforcement Is The Key…
The Christian Science Monitor just quoted me in a very fine article written by Jude Blanchette on China’s newly enacted labor law, entitled, “Key issue for China’s new labor law: enforcement”: “As is always the case with China’s laws, the……