Global Business Today 8th Edition by Charles Hill

Exercise 10

Working Conditions in a Chinese Factory
In 2008, the National Labor Committee sponsored an investigation into working conditions in two factories in China that make computer equipment, including keyboards and printer cases, for Hewlett-Packard, Dell, Lenovo, and Microsoft. The report, which was published in early 2009, describes working conditions that are extremely harsh by Western standards.
According to the report, in the Metai factory in Guangdong, the workers sit on wooden stools, without backrests, as 500 computer keyboards an hour move down the assembly line, 12 hours a day, seven days a week, with just two days off a month. Every 7.2 seconds a keyboard passes each worker, who has to snap six or seven keys into place-one key every 1.1 seconds. The assembly line never stops. The workplace is frantic, monotonous, numbing, and relentless. Each worker inserts 3,250 keys an hour; 35,750 keys during the official 11-hour shift; 250,250 a week, performing more than 1 million operations a month. Workers are paid 1/50th of a cent for each operation they complete. While working, employees cannot talk, listen to music, or even lift their heads to look around. Workers needing to use the bathroom must hold it until there is a break. Security guards spy on the workers, who are prohibited from putting their hands in their pockets and are searched when they enter and leave the factory. The factory operates 24 hours a day on two 12-hour shifts, with the workers rotating between day and night shifts each month. The workers are at the factory for up to 87 hours a week, and all overtime is mandatory. There are two half-hour meal breaks per shift, but after racing to the cafeteria and lining up to get food, the workers have only about 15 minutes to eat. The base wage is 64 cents an hour, which after deductions for primitive room and board drops to a take-home wage of just 41 cents an hour. The workers get up about 6:00 A.M. When they return to their dorm, sometime between 9:00 and 9:30 P.M., they bathe using a small plastic bucket. Summer temperatures routinely reach into the high 90s. During the winter, workers have to walk down several flights of stairs to fetch hot water in their buckets. Ten to twelve workers share each crowded dorm room, sleeping on narrow metal bunk beds that line the walls. Workers drape old sheets over their cubicle openings for privacy.
Comments from the workers at this factory, most of whom are young women between 18 and their mid-20s, reinforce how harsh the conditions are. One stated, "Every day I enter the factory and I assemble keyboards. My hands are moving constantly and I can't stop for a second. Our fingers, hands and arms are swollen and sore. Every day I do this for 12 hours. What makes it even worse is the constant pressure and boring monotony of the work." Another notes, "The factory rules are really like a private law. We are forced to obey and endure management's harsh treatment. Some young workers have boyfriends and girlfriends outside the factory and if they want to go on a date, we have to beg the boss for mercy to be able to leave the factory compound." Another said simply, "We feel like we are serving prison sentences."
When informed of these findings, a spokesman for Microsoft said the factory supplied one of its contract manufacturers, but Microsoft would investigate. Representatives from Hewlett-Packard and Lenovo also stated the factory was not a direct supplier, but supplied their suppliers. However, they too said they would look into the issue. A spokesman for Dell, for whom the factory is a direct supplier, said it was actively investigating conditions. The spokesman went on to say, "I can tell you that any reports of poor working conditions in Dell's supply chain are investigated and appropriate action is taken."
What labor standards regarding safety, working conditions, overtime, and the like, should U.S. companies hold foreign factories to: those prevailing in that country or those prevailing in the United States?