I just do not understand why the Chinese posters have their collective undies in knots about the Foxconn story.
Further I do not understand why they have to compare that to the urban Indian poor or the ship-breakers in Alang.
Just to educate them:
In India you can broadly classify the industries/organizations into two groups:
-> Organized
-> Unorganized
The organized sector is essentially what you would call a normal company. It will have a well defined set of ownership, will be registered, and once it becomes big enough, will be under the purview of different laws and regulations which control them. Their transactions would have a paper trail; they will have their own business license, business bank accounts, lines of credit etc.They will have regular employee rolls which will not change much, pay their salary on time etc.. Any corporation belongs to the organized sector.
The unorganized sector is what would be called the "underground" economy. It would primarily consist of small scale manufacturing, seasonal business, or family owned/run businesses. Many of these businesses will not even be registered as legal businesses, or be part of the industrial system with its laws and controls. Their ownership is private, and often in very few people; they may not even have a bank account registered in their name. Most of them work on cash basis, or verbal credit guarantees and may not have a legal paper trail.
In the organized Indian sector, it would be
next to impossible to have the kind of conditions talked about in the articles about Foxconn. Foxconn India did get into trouble with local unions, and had to adapt their policies to be consistent with local
expectations and laws.
sha: just because the police arrests people does not mean they are sent to a Gulag or a concentration camp. What it typically means is that the strikers were physically removed from the area they were protesting, their name/addresses noted in the address record and then they are let go after a few hours. It is typically done to restore order, after protests have been going on for some time, and if there is a chance of violence, or violence getting out of hand. It is a time honored tradition of political protest; very often the assembly, arrest and release are a pre-planned effort often called "jail-bharo" (fill up the jail)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jail_Bharo_Andolan
I do not know what exactly transpired in Foxconn India, but the bottom line is that the plant is working, the productivity of workers is high and attracting attention within Foxconn, and the working conditions are better for the workers than similar plants in PRC.
The whole point of the discussion (and the general discussion on this thread) is to get a better understanding of what happens in China. This particular case made highlighted the difference between the two countries, and how the same multinational company operates with different rules and structures in two different countries. It also highlights the challenges which India faces if it tries to replicate the Chinese model. The simple answer to that question is that India simply can not replicate it because the social, political, cultural environments are completely different.
wong: You have been warned before so dont outlive your welcome. If China was such a paradise, why do they need the censorship? What passes for the internet in China is a farce; another propaganda mechanism with people hired by the government to "guide discussion in the right direction", limit access to not so nice information, and outright ban access to what is not considered promoting harmony. China, after all it is a country where 80-90% people expressed great satisfaction with their government (cant find the link).
What does the government fear that it has to employ the great Chinese firewall?
The interesting thing about India is that the problems of the ship-breakers in Alang is first page story not only in India but in the world over. There are organizations actively working on protecting the worker's right, protecting the environment and
making the system less harmful. How often would news people and camera men let in similar setups in China? While you live in the US you can pretend that these do not exist. But pretending they do not exist does not make them go away.
In general: It will be best if the Chinese guests do not make it a competition or get their egos all bruised up when some thing not so nice is posted about China. zlin and others post the positive news which I enjoy learning from; the pros and cons go hand in hand.