> in my second hand experience Chinese worker protection laws are quite strict.
And yes, it's very strict. Lawful working hours are 40 hours per week. Lawfully firing a employee requires higher compensation than US.
Do you really believe above is enforced in China? Next time when you visiting China, ask them if familiar with this quote: laws in China are strictly legislated, commonly broke, selectively enforced. In fact, 996 is a norm and a company that does not require 996 will advertise that when recruiting. Layoff compensation for many people is ZERO because they don't even have social insurance or contracts signed. 100 Chinese Yuan per day, you get it when working and get nothing when leaving. (That's not the case for Foxconn though. I believe everyone working in Foxconn at least has a contract.)
> I just feel really bad for these people. They probably left some country side life making peanuts to go make some real money for a while at a factory and like send their kids to college or whatever - and now westerners are like "no, you shouldn't do that. go back to your bucolic life of poverty. And btw we hate your government". Cool
Thanks, I appreciate that. I (the OP) am that kid though. And I believe getting involved in labor-intensive industries can be a better thing than what it is nowadays in China.
I agree with the rest of your post. Like I mentioned, reasons of the protest are varied.
I mean I lived a sheltered life in the city and my friends were city folks, but I often hear people had issues firing bad employees. And on the flip side people new their rights and knew they couldn't just be left off on a random day.
Companies seemed always cautious with firing. Yeah there was tons of sneaky stuff and people not getting their contracts and lots of grey area stuff - maybe the enforcement wasn't great. But my point is that they actually have some mechanisms in place that do function when it's you vs a company (not you vs the government). So it's not fair to characterize the whole place as lawless
In this case from the news it seemed to have worked out exactly as it should legally. Foxconn messed up (or tried to get sneaky with paying people), they got slapped on the wrist by the government, everyone got paid
I hope their legal systems keep improving (it was way worse a decade or two ago) and less companies get away with screwing their employees. I'm skeptical other developing nations like India are on some other higher level with their legal systems.
I think your original post is extremely sensationalist - comparing factory work to pseudoslave labor in cotton fields - especially given you're from a background that benefitted from this (I assume your parents worked when the system was much worse)
The court system in India is notorious for delays and backlogs, to the extent that some companies don't invest there due to the difficulty of enforcing contracts.
This is what Westerners, who are used to rule of law, do not understand about authoritarian countries. Selective enforcement of laws is the preferred way to punish transgressors.
In Chechnya, the Kadyrovite kingdom, there is a crossroads with a traffic light that is always red. It never turns green. People routinely drive through that traffic light on red, because it can't be done otherwise.
Why is the traffic light even there? The side road connects to a Kadyrovite palace. If there is any accident with any vehicle coming from that palace, the normal driver on the main road is automatically at fault - because he disrespected a red light.
That's loads of bullshit. People don't really understand the 40 hours per week thing. You CAN work overtime, as long as you get overtime pay, and you should have 2 days off, if you work on those off days, you should get double pay. It is very common practice in factories, where you expect to work overtime to earn more money.
In office job it is very different, you hardly get compensation for overtime, but if you go to court you definitely can get the money. The real reason is that those jobs are best paid, a few times more than other people, so people typically only sue their companies after they are fired. Yes, sometimes people worry about not finding another job, so they will accept what's been forced on them.
> in my second hand experience Chinese worker protection laws are quite strict.
And yes, it's very strict. Lawful working hours are 40 hours per week. Lawfully firing a employee requires higher compensation than US.
Do you really believe above is enforced in China? Next time when you visiting China, ask them if familiar with this quote: laws in China are strictly legislated, commonly broke, selectively enforced. In fact, 996 is a norm and a company that does not require 996 will advertise that when recruiting. Layoff compensation for many people is ZERO because they don't even have social insurance or contracts signed. 100 Chinese Yuan per day, you get it when working and get nothing when leaving. (That's not the case for Foxconn though. I believe everyone working in Foxconn at least has a contract.)
> I just feel really bad for these people. They probably left some country side life making peanuts to go make some real money for a while at a factory and like send their kids to college or whatever - and now westerners are like "no, you shouldn't do that. go back to your bucolic life of poverty. And btw we hate your government". Cool
Thanks, I appreciate that. I (the OP) am that kid though. And I believe getting involved in labor-intensive industries can be a better thing than what it is nowadays in China.
I agree with the rest of your post. Like I mentioned, reasons of the protest are varied.