Factory Workers

Farmer’s flights from impossible living conditions have led to the formation of a new class of migrant workers (the mingong) who are exploited both by capitalists and by bureaucrats. They are also victims of an additional discrimination, due to the registration procedures regarding residency documents.

The system of “temporary residential permits” was introduced 20 years ago to prevent excess migration to the cities. For this reason, the majority of the inhabitants in the megalopoli are classified as “illegal,” and so are easily subjected to blackmail and exploitation. A method commonly used by factory bosses is to confiscate worker’s IDs to prevent them from protesting or escaping.

To begin with, let’s look at large companies. In these companies, the “normal” work day schedule is 13 to 15 hours a day but, due to production requirements (especially in peak production periods) workers may be forced to work another 3 to 7 hours a day of mandatory and unpaid overtime.

The system bosses use is the following: they set minimum productivity limits to be met, and then if the proposed goal has not been reached at the end of the day, workers are not allowed to leave the factory until they have reached set minimum production, without receiving any extra pay.

The work day is composed of a 7 day work week. A Chinese worker has a day off (if at all) once every 15 days, while breaks during the work day (if any) are an average of two. “Each time you need to use the bathroom – a worker reports – you must ask the foreman for permission, then sign a list. If you stay in the bathroom for more than 5 minutes you get fined.”

On paper, there is a minimum wage fixed by the government, but the average worker’s salary (in large factories) varies from 250 to 700 yuan per month, over half of which is held by the company to pay for food and lodging.

And what food and lodging!

There are first-hand reports of huge unclean rooms in which dozens of workers sleep on metal hammocks, often in the company of rats and cockroaches. In addition to the fee workers must pay to sleep in these places, they must pay for electricity and water as well.

At the company commissary, there are reports of scarce low-quality food. Soup, vegetables, broth, a bowl of rice accompanied by some algae or soy sprouts (for the lucky ones, sometimes chicken wings). The food is often described as fetid and rancid, and cases of sickness and poisoning are not rare. During breaks, some may try to buy food outside the factory, but the miserable salaries only permit them to purchase food which is of the same low quality.

A month's salary is typically retained by the company as a weapon of blackmail: if a worker quits, they lose it. Sometimes, monthly wages are inexplicably delayed. The hope of earning money and sending it home to other family members who are living below the poverty line often vanishes in the daily struggle for survival.

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