Hecho (responsable?) En China
Por Katherine Don
Tenía recientemente la oportunidad de visitar dos fábricas en la ciudad meridional de China de Kaiping que produjo los pantalones vaqueros del dril de algodón para un minorista importante del descuento en los Estados Unidos. Considerando que los únicos informes de las fábricas chinas del textil que había parecido habían sido críticos, la visita era sorpresa (agradable) de a.
Las condiciones de trabajo eran ordenadas y ponen en orden, el aire estaba fresco a pesar de calor abrasador apenas más allá de las paredes concretas, la iluminación abundante fluyó de ventanas de bahía grandes, y de empleados sanos charlados ocasional sobre el ronquido de las máquinas que notaban apenas la presencia del dueño de la fábrica que nos conducía a través. Un sentido del respecto y del camaraderie pasó entre la gerencia y los empleados, edades 20-40, mientras que la atmósfera era tranquila con todo eficiente por una tarde de domingo sin un sentido del agotamiento o de la opresión del empleado.
Cada piso de la facilidad grande ocupó una diversa etapa del proceso de producción, de cortar a la costura, a bordar, y al empaquetado. Los pisos fueron organizados cuidadosamente con máquina-algún robusto automatizar-para un proceso aerodinámico del perno a la caja.
Mientras que observaba el proceso mecánico, con todo diligente en cada estación, extensión hacia fuera entre los montones de la mezclilla del dril de algodón en las varias etapas, era natural ver cómo más de 4000 artículos son diariamente producido listos para los estantes de un almacén grande americano importante de la caja, preembalados con las suspensiones y tasar etiqueta-todo para menos de 25 centavos por la tarifa que va actual del pedazo- para cualesquiera cortados, estilo, colada y cantidad de pantalones vaqueros del dril de algodón en China. En vista de la capacidad de la fábrica de programar y de producir en masa rápidamente cualesquiera cortados y estilo, la noción de un mercado de los pantalones vaqueros del boutique en el oeste se parecía un scam ridículo en el consumidor occidental de la clase alta. (I was especially impressed by the custom embroidery machine pictured below, which stitched the butterflies and curlicues you see on teenage girls’ hip-hugger back pockets, 16 at a time)
One of the more altruistic in our party spoke with the owner about increasing worker salaries and benefits in order to reverse the much-publicized “race to the bottom” of the globalized textile industry. The owner’s response demonstrated the real-world complexities of a decision that is so obvious in the eyes of western academics and journalists. Like the U.S. there is tremendous job insecurity in China. Though China makes as much as half the world’s clothes today, perpetual fear exists that less-developed markets like Vietnam, Bangladesh and Thailand will take the reins as soon as China loses its competitive edge. This fear is so much the case, that any attempts by factory owners to rock the boat have been met with threats and violence from other factory owners, fearful of losing their businesses.
Not surprisingly, the factory owner said that it was not just his workers who feel the squeeze; he himself is left with very little salary at the end of the day and the middlemen at later stages of the supply chain that eat up all of the margins.
Regardless of the veracity of the factory owner’s stories, what was immediately evident was that the stories of workers locked into dark rooms—not allowed to take bathroom breaks or talk, being worked to the brink of death—were not the case in this factory. In retrospect, it seems sheltered and naive to assume that the conditions of every factory in China are dismal chambers where laborers are enslaved in poor working conditions under management insensitive to personal health and well-being.
Inevitably it has been the reports of flawed practice and mismanagement that tend to make headlines while presumably thousands of factories, like the one I saw, prosper under relatively fair-minded and responsible business owners.
Katherine Don, reader-contribution on Managing the Dragon
December 9th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
“Monitoring contract manufacturers from abroad is not easy. Visits to factories are hard to arrange, are often canceled, and, when they do occur, are sometimes elaborately stage-managed.” - Economist 8/16/07
From a single visit to an apparently socially-responsible factory the author draws sweeping conclusions. She presumes that “thousands of factories, like the one I saw, prosper under relatively fair-minded and responsible business owners,” and argues that it is “naive to assume that the conditions of every factory in China are dismal chambers where laborers are enslaved in poor working conditions under management insensitive to personal health and well-being.”
But what does it mean if thousands of factories are socially responsible while a possibly equal number, or more, are indeed “dismal chambers where laborers are enslaved in poor working conditions”? There is no reason to assume the factory Katherine Don visited is representative of the majority of factories in China. And while sweatshops may not be the norm in China, there are certainly far too many of them.
The Western press is right to expose unfair working conditions in China’s factories. Based on Ms. Don’s snapshot of the factory she visited, the working conditions she observed are to be expected, just as policemen are expected not to be corrupt and chemical plants are expected not to dump toxic waste into the local reservoir.
This reminds me of the foreigner who goes to China, visits Beijing and Shanghai, and comes away with the impression that China is developed and prosperous. Beijing and Shanghai do not represent China, a vast country with up to 300 million impoverished people.
A socially-responsible factory in China should be held up as a model for irresponsible factories in China, not lauded as an example of why Westerners shouldn’t naively assume every factory in China is a sweatshop.