[Original French article: La Rivière des perles et la lutte des classes.]
In May 2010, a wave of strikes is set to begin in south China. 400 companies would be affected, across the country. Return to Guangdong, where a new generation of immigrants is changing the game, and raises the question of effective labor union representation.
Guangdong, China, by special envoy.
It is 17h30. Foxconn's workers are leaving the plant. The north gate of the factory, a gigantic gray bunker, opens, letting out waves of dark blue jackets for men, gray and pink for women. It's a "mega" version of Workers leaving the Lumière Factory in Lyon [1] taking place in the neighborhood of Longhua, a half-hour from downtown Shenzhen, the industrial metropolis in southern China. Within minutes, streets and sidewalks are stormed by thousands of workers who, with the rhythm of a rising tide, return to their dormitories.
The outsourcing empire for electronics headed by Taiwan's Terry Gou employs 800,000 people in a dozen sites in China. The 300,000 workers in Shenzhen Foxconn work the production line for the Apple iPhone, Nokia mobile phones, game consoles from Sony and PCs from Dell and Hewlett-Packard. It's difficult to stop some of the workers. Many ignore us, refusing to speak. Others offer us, without slowing their pace, a few snippets of their lives. The young Yao confirms that his salary was raised to 2,400 yuan (268 euros) in early November, according to the promises of the billionaire boss, "but that's with overtime, the basic salary being 1200 yuan. She said no more. Nothing about the 12-hour working day, six days a week, and especially nothing on the suicides of 14 employees last year.
Near a newsstand, we encounter Tian. He is amused by our vain attempts to make contact with his young colleagues: "They won't speak. Starting right away during their trial period, they are told that there is a ban on talking about the company, not only with outsiders, but also amongst themselves. They feel they are being watched."
Tian is a technician and has worked for four years at Foxconn on the development of new models of portable phones. He is itching to talk about the company. In the street, near the factory, is not the right place. He invites us to his lodging, three bus stops away. In his tiny three-room apartment, we meet his wife Chen, his daughter and his mother. Like her husband, Chen is a Foxconn worker, in logistics. When we ask Tian why there is such a aura of despair around the plant, the answer is immediate: the terrible pressure, and the overwork. "Even the engineers are not immune. One of them, Li Yan, died of exhaustion, May 26, 2010, after working twenty-four hours straight. It is frowned upon to refuse to work overtime. One is immediately sidelined. We also suffer from severe isolation vis-à- vis other workers, both in the workshops and in the dormitories. "The pressure is constant, and the tale- telling and mistrust among colleagues, maintained by management, break any form of solidarity.
"We do not talk to each other, we don't get together. In four years, I once called a colleague on his mobile," says Tian. He reflects on the poisonous atmosphere of Foxconn, confirming the report by researchers from 20 universities from China, Taiwan and Hongkong, denouncing "inhuman" working conditions in the company, with reports of insults and beatings by foremen, and insane timetables (up to 100 hours per week, from 80.).
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