Intriguing story from a Taiwanese newspaper about the conditions in Southern China.

Excerpt:

“The factory closure last November was a scenario that has been repeated across southern China, where more than 1,000 shoe factories — about a fifth of the total — have closed down in the past year. The majority were in Houjie, a concrete sprawl on the outskirts of Dongguan known as China’s “Shoe Town.”

“In the past, workers would just swallow all the insults and humiliation. Now they resist,” said Jenny Chan, chief coordinator of the Hong Kong-based pressure group Students and Scholars against Corporate Misbehavior, which investigates factory conditions in southern China.

“They collect money and they gather signatures. They use the shop floors and the dormitories to gather the collective forces to put themselves in better negotiating positions with factory owners and managers,” she said.

Technology has made this possible.

“They use their mobile phones to receive news and send messages,” Chan said “Internet cafes are very important, too. They exchange news about which cities or which factories are recruiting and what they are offering, and that news spreads very quickly.”

As a result, she says, factories are seeing huge turnover rates. In Houjie, some factories have tripled workers’ salaries, but there are still more than 100,000 vacancies.”

The article cites hopeful commentary from a labor activist:

“The prospect of an end to China’s sweatshop culture is welcomed by labor groups, which look forward to the emergence of a politically influential labor movement similar to the ones that shaped so much of postwar politics in the US and Europe.

The working class in China will get stronger and bring about some major changes … hese forces from the bottom up are very important in making a better China, a China that is more democratic and participatory.”