China factory workers hold US boss hostage

[zboy1]

Looks like Chinese workers are starting to fight back against their corporate overlord:

Factory workers hold US boss hostage in China


Papantonio: Chinese Workers Pushing Back



In comparison, look at this slanted, anti-Chinese, pro-corporate CNBC report of the same incident:




What would happen if some U.S. workers tried to do the same thing? I'm guessing SWAT police and worker beat-downs from the federal gestapo goons...

[momopi]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142 ... 82102.html

This is a case of "he said, she said". The Chinese workers claim that the American partner was bailing for good and leaving behind obsolete equipment, taking the better hardware to India, and owed the workers 2 months in back-pay. The Chinese workers saw the writing on the wall and decided to take action. Regardless, this is the result of rising wages in China and multinational companies looking elsewhere for cheaper labor.

I meet with some friends for Dim Sum over the weekend and one of the girls worked in garment industry. Her opinion of the US-Burma rapprochement is that US companies are looking at Burma as the next cheap labor destination. She has already taken couple trips there to visit the garment factories and said the wages are significantly cheaper than China, though productivity and efficiency is not as good. I don't have any hard numbers to give, but I suspect we'd see more in news reports in the future.