Parenthetically, this week was the anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York. 146 (mostly women) lost their lives when doors were locked and a fire broke out on a lower floor. The fire was on the 8th, 9th and 10th floors and fire engine ladders couldn't reach the windows that high. The owners of the building (who survived) were indicted but not convicted of manslaughter charges. Public outrage eventually led to building safety codes being enacted, and was the impetus for the formation of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. The building survived the fire, and when you walk around NYU, you will see a plaque on the side of the building, although there is an effort to have a more meaningful memorial to those who lost their lives. The Triangle workers were paid low wages (the 2014 equivalent of $166 to $285 a week, or $3.20 to $5.50 per hour).
In China, an average factory worker now earns around $600 per month on the coast and just under $500 inland, about 20 times what they would have earned three decades ago. This is a huge improvement over the past few decades and represents the largest decrease in poverty in history. The process which folks went through certainly wasn't fun and wasn't without its problems, but it worked like nothing else ever has. The real reason wages went up is because China's labor pool is shrinking while demand for labor is still strong. Unions in China are there to promote state propaganda, not to represent workers.
Also, the strikes are more about venting frustration than achieving results. This is a big difference from the US where those partaking in protests overstate what they can accomplish, those in China know that a protest is unlikely to achieve anything. I've seen more than once where folks were knowingly protesting in front of an empty building just because they feared the repercussions of protesting against the local officials.
It's truly remarkable how far China has come. But Chinese cities often seem wrapped in a toxic gray shroud. Only 1 percent of the country’s 560 million city dwellers breathe air considered safe.Industrial cities where people rarely see the sun; children killed or sickened by lead poisoning or other types of local pollution; a coastline so swamped by algal red tides that large sections of the ocean no longer sustain marine life.
And those issues will likely eventually affect the other countries that are industrializing now. Hopefully they'll learn some valuable lessons, but I fear they will not.
Industrializing has cost every country quite a bit, China is certainly no exception, but it hasupsides. Really your phrase should have been "less frequently lethal and disabling", which reflects the real choices they had.
Parenthetically, this week was the anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York. 146 (mostly women) lost their lives when doors were locked and a fire broke out on a lower floor. The fire was on the 8th, 9th and 10th floors and fire engine ladders couldn't reach the windows that high. The owners of the building (who survived) were indicted but not convicted of manslaughter charges. Public outrage eventually led to building safety codes being enacted, and was the impetus for the formation of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union. The building survived the fire, and when you walk around NYU, you will see a plaque on the side of the building, although there is an effort to have a more meaningful memorial to those who lost their lives. The Triangle workers were paid low wages (the 2014 equivalent of $166 to $285 a week, or $3.20 to $5.50 per hour).
It's interesting that now in China, unions are forming to protect workers' rights and working conditions. Which has caused some customers to take their business to Vietnam and other countries.
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In China, an average factory worker now earns around $600 per month on the coast and just under $500 inland, about 20 times what they would have earned three decades ago. This is a huge improvement over the past few decades and represents the largest decrease in poverty in history. The process which folks went through certainly wasn't fun and wasn't without its problems, but it worked like nothing else ever has. The real reason wages went up is because China's labor pool is shrinking while demand for labor is still strong. Unions in China are there to promote state propaganda, not to represent workers.
Also, the strikes are more about venting frustration than achieving results. This is a big difference from the US where those partaking in protests overstate what they can accomplish, those in China know that a protest is unlikely to achieve anything. I've seen more than once where folks were knowingly protesting in front of an empty building just because they feared the repercussions of protesting against the local officials.
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Lovely euphemisms for "frequently lethal and disabling."
Do they apply to China's use of slave labor?
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It's truly remarkable how far China has come. But Chinese cities often seem wrapped in a toxic gray shroud. Only 1 percent of the country’s 560 million city dwellers breathe air considered safe.Industrial cities where people rarely see the sun; children killed or sickened by lead poisoning or other types of local pollution; a coastline so swamped by algal red tides that large sections of the ocean no longer sustain marine life.
And those issues will likely eventually affect the other countries that are industrializing now. Hopefully they'll learn some valuable lessons, but I fear they will not.
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