Labor and Health: Is the Factory Half Exposed or Covered?

The labor practices of suppliers in other countries comes up from time to time in conversations with people about offshoring.  This topic usually opens a can of worms, but it's important to talk about.  It's a very sensitive subject--because it's one that touches people's values.  Our's included.  We take it seriously because we've got to sleep at night too.  Fortunately for us, good labor practices tend to run with those factories that make better partners in general.  But, many people who haven't spent time operating overseas might not see that it's a completely different ballgame than what we're dealing with here in the West.  No, that's not an easy way out, that's the truth. 

Western companies must play by western rules in a country and culture with different rules.  Their records might be less than satisfactory from a domestic perspective in some cases, but I tend to believe that many are making the effort to push things in the right direction--far past the standard that might exist were they not there.  I often find that those who want to extend US labor standards abroad into a compulsory, universal system have trouble coming to grips with the fact that what they're suggesting is the imposition of very western concepts on a culture and society that may not value the same things we do, labor standards included.  This idea wasn't pointed out to me by someone in some multinational corporation's purchasing or operations department, but by a Burmese professor during my graduate work in Asian Studies.   I can tell you that Chinese culture does not place the same value on these things the way we do.  But for all the flack that western companies get for being slack about enforcing these standards, they are making improvements from what might otherwise be taking place.

Not long ago, I toured a factory a few hours outside Shenzhen, China.  Considering the factories that I've been to, the facilities were clean and organized.  This factory manufactures all kinds of toys for the largest retailers in the U.S.  The owner employed approximately 10,000 people and we toured the multiple warehouses and buildings as he adeptly tore around the area in his Land Rover. 

Walking through the production lines, rows and rows of young men and women sat and spray coated various pieces of an action-figure whose character is particularly popular in the US.  They held the figure over their table and used a spray gun to coat the figure’s various limbs.  Approximately one half of the workers wore white surgeon’s masks, while the rest did not.  During lunch, the owner explained the trouble he was having keeping up with the labor and environmental demands of U.S. retailers.  His facilities were routinely inspected by 3rd parties for compliance with labor and health standards.  Undercover inspectors interviewed employees about the amount of work required of them.  And at one point, a major US customer decided that all of his employees should have access to and be able to wear the surgeons masks while working.  Begrudgingly, he purchased and offered the masks.  But, only about half or less of the employees had taken to them.  According to him, many of the employees simply did not like wearing the masks and didn’t see the point.

Without the directives in the first place, believe me, no one would be wearing these masks.  But under explicit directions from the US companies, they had succeeded in getting half of the workforce to wear masks.  Maybe health education is the next step.  The current situation might not be ideal, but coming from them: "a journey of 1,000 miles begins with one step". 

 

Comments

[China Dream]

I am glad to hear that some US companies actually do care about the labor standards of their suppliers. This is refreshing to hear since people tend to associate US multinationals with sweatshops and how they abuse labor in third world countries, etc. It's also interesting to note that not everyone values the same safety standards and practices afforded to western companies. The factory you visited in Shenzhen is a case in point.

[Audall]

ChinaDream,
I would venture to say that most US companies operating abroad go in with good intentions, but it's tough to say how far they really go in carrying out what they hope to do. They quickly learn that their domestic competition is not held to the same standards and in fact, government agencies might be using higher standards against them to help the domestic competition. When labor standards become a means of competition, rather than about the actual wellbeing of the laborer, I think US companies are tempted to let their own practices fall off. Or, as in the case with the factory in Shenzhen, what do you do when your local partners barely support you or the laborers themselves aren't interested in some of the directives set forth? Do you pull and go to another factory? Will you find anything different?

[China Dream]

That is true. Different aspects have to be taken into considerations.