Just in case anyone though US manufacturing had a snowball’s chance, there was an excellent program on TV a few nights ago. The program covered an “ethics audit” of a Chinese manufacturing plant being conducted by a team of two consultants on behalf of Nokia. The plant makes power supplies (chargers) for Nokia cellphones. The plant is operated by an un-named German company. The plant manager is German and there is also a British executive who appeared to be his deputy. The rest of the management staff appeared to be Chinese and seemed to have good English.
The plant appeared to be modern, with new high-tech equipment and good housekeeping, no different than a similar plant in Silicon Valley. Also not unlike Silicon valley, the plant workers are mostly (90% according to the manager) female. All visible appeared to be young – twenties, I would say, and looked cheerful and social. No Dickensian horror here. Almost all are single, and are accommodated by the plant in adjacent multi-story dormitory buildings. There are both male and female dormitories and visiting is permitted – just not overnight. The company also provides full board in a large cafeteria – accessed by electronic badge.
The dormitory suites shown consisted of a single large room and ensuite toilet/shower facilities. Entry-level staff are eight to a room in curtained cubicles to provide a modicum of privacy. “Junior” staff are four to a room. Senior staff and the few married couples live offsite. As the Nokia reps commented, you could easily have thought it a college dorm.
Now for the scary part. The average worker’s wage is RMB 300 per month, of which the company retains RMB 150 to pay for the room and board. RMB 8 = USD 1 (approximately) so the gross wage, and this includes substantial overtime, is about USD 37.50 per month. These women were working for less than twenty US cents an hour. Several were interviewed in private and were generally happy with the deal, except for complaints about the food. (Which is entirely consistent with the college dorm). All would rather be there than back on the farm.
Twenty cents is about 1% of the average US manufacturing wage. Think about it.
By the way, the Nokia reps were reasonably happy with the plant. They dinged them for underpaying probationary employees and also for a safety issue relating to storage of toxics, which the management agreed to fix.
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