|
In the process of economic globalization over the past few decades, in order to maximize profits, global manufacturing capital has freely and rapidly crossed national borders and flowed more and more to developing countries. However, workers in the manufacturing industry (especially labor-intensive industries) have to face the problem of a comprehensive decline in labor standards caused by the capital "race to the bottom". In the past 10 years, as various issues of labor rights infringement have become the focus of global media attention, the public has realized that the "sweatshops" that disappeared in the early 20th century have become the reality of the capitalist factory system today. The global "anti-sweatshop" movement has developed to varying degrees in various places; correspondingly, the "corporate social responsibility" (CSR) movement has also emerged in the global business community.
The FS factory is part of a large sports shoe manufacturer in Taiwan. In the late 1980s, like most other Taiwanese sports shoe manufacturers, the company began to move production to mainland China in order to significantly reduce production costs in terms of labor, land, and energy. Throughout the 1990s, FS continued to expand its production operations due to large orders from FB. By 2002, FS had become FB's second largest sports shoe supplier in China, with about 16 production lines, more than 10,000 employees, and an annual output of more than 10 million pairs of shoes. Like most other labor-intensive Taiwanese-invested enterprises, FS's management structure has become highly bureaucratic. Most of the production line workers are migrant workers from relatively poor inland areas, more than 90% of the workers are women, and more than 95% of the workers are between 18 and 35 years old.
On the FS production line, the manufacturing process of sports shoes is still very labor-intensive. According to different processes, workers are assigned to work departments such as cutting, sewing, sole processing, molding, painting, quality inspection and warehousing. In order to maximize production capacity and strictly control product quality, the factory relies on the "Taylor system" to achieve "scientific management" of the labor process, that is, to implement direct control of labor through bureaucratic management. This control is usually open, authoritarian, and punishment-oriented. For example, a detailed "employee handbook" was formulated, which not only constrained employees' every move during working hours, but also made strict regulations on employees' walking routes to and from get off work, dressing and hats, and dining behavior. Reprimands, fines, bonus deductions, and dismissals are common labor control methods used by managers. Under these conditions, the legal rights and interests of FS workers were violated from time to time. Throughout the 1990s before FB strictly implemented its code, the main labor problems in FS included: overtime; underpayment of overtime pay; occupational safety and health issues; managers arbitrarily insulting, corporal punishment, punishment, and dismissal of employees; and restrictions on employees' freedom to take leave and resign.
The various labor problems existing in FS are not only closely related to the authoritarian labor discipline system, but also rooted in China's special labor system during the period of market transformation. Under this labor system, there are still many deficiencies in the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of migrant workers in foreign-funded enterprises, such as labor legislation, social security system, minimum wage guarantee system, and trade union representative mechanism. First, although the Labor Law has made comprehensive and strict provisions on the rights and interests of workers, the local governments responsible for law enforcement are often unwilling or unable to strictly supervise the effective implementation of the Labor Law for the sake of local economic development. For foreign-funded enterprises, the enforcement of local governments is even weaker. Some local governments are afraid that strictly protecting the rights and interests of workers in accordance with the requirements of the Labor Law will have a negative impact on the investment environment and local employment; some local governments even completely ignore the legitimate rights and interests of migrant workers on the grounds of protecting the economic interests of investors. Secondly, the social security system also provides very limited protection for migrant workers. In 2004, the participation rates of Chinese migrant workers in social insurance for pension, unemployment, medical care, work-related injuries, and maternity insurance for female employees were only 33.7%, 10.3%, 21.6%, 31.8%, and 5.5%, respectively.
① The proportion of foreign-funded enterprises participating in social insurance is even lower. Taking Province A, where FS is located, as an example, in 1998, the proportion of foreign-funded enterprises in Province A participating in insurance was only 12.8%, and only a few of them paid insurance premiums on time and in full.
② It was not until 1999 that FS began to participate in the social insurance system. However, only 50-60% of employees are eligible to participate in social insurance, that is, local employees in Province A who have worked in FS for more than 3 months have priority, and non-local employees need to work for more than 2 years to be eligible. Thirdly, the minimum wage guarantee system cannot meet the basic living needs of workers. my country's minimum wage system was established in 1993, namely the "Enterprise Minimum Wage Regulations" promulgated by the former Ministry of Labor. In 2004, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security revised this regulation and issued the "Minimum Wage Regulations". Up to now, all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities have established a minimum wage guarantee system.
③ However, since the power to formulate the minimum wage standard has been localized, local governments have suppressed wage increases in order to maintain their cheap labor advantage in economic development, resulting in a low minimum wage standard that does not meet the standards established by labor laws and regulations and cannot guarantee the lives of low-wage workers.
④ Taking City B where FS is located as an example, the minimum wage standard in City B only increased from 300 yuan in 1999 to 400 yuan in 2003, which is still unable to meet the basic living needs of workers in terms of clothing, food, housing, transportation, and medical care.
⑤ Finally, the trade unions’ functions in representing and protecting migrant workers in foreign-invested enterprises are also limited. Taking Province A as an example, the rate of trade unionization in foreign-invested enterprises was only 9.8% in 1999, and slowly rose to 18.6% in 2003.
⑥ At the request of the local trade union, FS established a trade union in 1997. However, all members of the trade union committee are middle and senior managers, and the chairman of the trade union is the former deputy director of the personnel department. The main activities of the trade union are to organize employees to participate in various cultural and sports activities and to cooperate with the higher-level trade union to carry out work. In the eyes of the workers, the main function of the trade union is to cooperate with managers to manage employees, rather than to represent employees to safeguard their interests.
In the late 1990s, FB, a multinational corporation that has long been concerned about "human rights" issues, entered the field of labor standards and regulations by leveraging its dominant position in the global supply chain, and established the "Human Rights Production Standard" to regulate the labor standards of its global suppliers, becoming a new force influencing FS labor standards and labor relations. The next section of the article will take FB as an example to explore the driving force, implementation mechanism and dilemma of the CSR and code of conduct movement with multinational corporations as the main actors over the past 10 years. |
