My mother said today, "Thank goodness for unions. They are so necessary. Those poor people who get so abused by their employers in China, what wouldn't they give for an effective union?" She said it all in a shushed sort of scandalised voice.
Today, here and now, my mother applauds unions, which have somehow become disreputable in the New Zealand media.
There's a bit in the Dresden Files where Marcone hires Harry to not work on a case Murphy has hired him to investigage.
Forgive my tangent, but I just found the graphic novels of this series, and my mum confiscated the first one. She's gonna take it home and read it herself. Scoundrel.
Anyway, that's an everyday occurrence in China.
Imagine enduring bad conditions in a big factory where you're immediately replaceable. Your union, who you were forced to join, is often paid by the company officials to not represent you. The future must seem bleak.
People fight for the jobs, they say, because they're so good compared to what else is out there. That's what Apple says too. Given the standards some humans in the world work in, OK, fair point. Not bloody good enough, though. There's always going to be a worse place to work, and not being bottom of the barrel should not be a point of pride!! That's like saying "Yeah, I burgled your house, but I didn't rape you then set your brother on fire while I was at it. SOME PEOPLE DO THAT, YOU KNOW."
One well-known labour rights advocacy organisation sent into Foxconn, a supplier to Apple, found dangerous working conditions, unfair calculations of time worked, wages so low that they compel acceptance of large amounts of overtime, high work intensity, and complete failure of the company to pay for any insurance (e.g. work-related injury) required by the law, says ChinaRealTimeReport. They found workers routinely doing 70 hour weeks with few or no breaks and not getting their one day off per week.
Imagine that. Working every day, with no breaks, for at least 10 hours, for someone else (hey, look, it sounds awkwardly like teaching primary school here when you put it like that) who then pays you poorly and kicks you right in the face when you complain. Kicks you! Right in the face! (Metaphorically speaking!)
Unfortunately, when there are corrupt people making and monitoring it, the law doesn't stop people in charge doing whatever the hell they want (Apple is chronically beleagured by management interference in the compulsory unions - threats, bullying, bribery - and self-organised unions are illegal). Especially when there is (huge) profit involved.
They'll break the law til they get caught, then simply pay the fine. It's cheaper. It's all - all! - about the money.
And that profit, that unfathomable amount of money going to the shareholders, seems to be such a sore point for the workers, who had a massive brawl the other day in one Apple-owned factory.
It can't be just low pay, when they are paid more than their peers in other companies. Why, then, are the workers so desperately unhappy?
Their unhappiness is very widely documented. Suicide is such a problem that some Apple factories have installed nets to catch jumpers. Did that sink in? They have installed nets to catch all the employees that are jumping off the building because they are so miserable that they want to die.
It must have been much more cost effective than making life less hellish for its employees.
They did take another legal step, though, so good on them. They banned suicide.
Yeah... good one.
My collective contract says nothing about suicide, but the workload is huge, depression is high among teachers, and the burnout rate is, on average, five years. I managed four.
Teaching is extremely hard work, with the conditions literally rivalling Chinese factories, and school management, just like factory management, can be very difficult people to work under.
My union has just passed its test with flying colours.
Boy, I'm glad I live in New Zealand.
