ckaihatsu
3rd September 2012, 12:17
[LaborTech] In isolation, small voices remain unheard-Chinese Motorla Workers Protest
China.org.cn, September 1, 2012
http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/2012-09/01/content_26391770.htm
In isolation, small voices remain unheard-Chinese Motorla Workers Protest
By Jasmine Li
On Aug. 15, approximately 400 employees gathered outside Motorola's Nanjing office , carrying banners printed with messages such as "we reject violent layoffs, we demand fair negotiations" (反对暴力裁员,要求对等协商). They were joined on Aug. 17 by 200 employees outside Motorola Beijing.
As part of a plan to turn around the financially-struggling mobile phone manufacturer after its acquisition of Motorola Mobility, Google announced a plan to cut 4,000 Motorola employees worldwide, including over 1,000 in China. The cuts target primarily skilled software engineers at Motorola's Chinese R&D centers, as the company narrows its focus to a few models. Motorola also plans to close its Shanghai and Nanjing R&D centers, concentrating its research efforts in Beijing.
Despite raising an exciting ruckus, the unrest already seems to be fading from view.
China's contemporary labor movement has seen mounting levels of organized worker action in recent years, ranging from defense of workers' rights to demands for higher wages and better union representation.
http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20120831/001372acd7d311aa997531.jpg
Employees of Motorola Mobility Nanjing R&D Center protest the reduction of workforce outside the office building. [Photo: it.sohu.com]
It is tempting to read the Motorola protests as a catalyst for the expansion of the labor movement into the realm of skilled technical workers, where such struggles are basically unheard of. But the protests are more of a fluke than anything representative of the future of the labor movement.
Curiously, the protests were organized in response to an anomaly in China's present course of growth. This is a fight over severance compensation and cuts in a sector where, generally, things are moving in a positive direction. Most of the protesters during the past two weeks were college-educated technical workers (62 percent of those at the Nanjing center have master's degrees, according to China Daily) with fairly good job prospects, given government incentives and strategic growth initiatives in the electronics industry.
In the past few years, cities all over China, from Harbin to Shanghai and Wuhan, have built high-tech development zones and encouraged the growth of R&D in their jurisdictions ― the country as a whole has maintained over ten percent annual growth in spending on R&D, according to the Global R&D Spending Forecast published by R&D magazine. Predictably, electronics companies, including international giants like Microsoft to domestic enterprises like Huawei, continue to open up R&D centers in China. As a sector, IT in China is not shrinking but growing. So, despite Motorola's recent cutbacks , downsizings like this are not likely to become the norm any time soon.
The ease with which the situation was resolved in Beijing is fairly indicative of where these protests will lead. In Beijing, where the majority of Motorola's China cuts were made, some workers settled on Aug.21 for an improvement to the layoff package-a housing stipend plus compensation for unused annual leave. The rapid settlement reflects the fairly good job prospects in Beijing.
Nanjing workers have held out because of a gloomier market, but their struggle is nevertheless unlikely to evolve into anything more than haggling, an isolated battle over a one-time compensation package. Additionally, there's nothing particularly innovative about the Nanjing workers' demands, neither will they set precedents for future struggles. If this were a battle over salaries or conditions of work, it might set the bar for future encounters. But as a fight over a severance package, it can do little more than win a few extra scraps out of the collateral damage of Motorola's restructuring.
Despite the unusual nature of the case, workers' demands for more voice-for negotiations, as their banner stated-in opposition to their treatment as mere money-losing investments for Motorola, are central demands of the labor movement as a whole. The hollowness of trade union representation and Chinese labor law is another important thread of China's larger labor movement, in line with labor activists' calls for better worker representation. Among college-educated workers, only teachers appear to engage in any frequent organizing to express grievances in the workplace. This action by skilled IT workers, though limited in its scope, is still the highest level of organization the sector has seen thus far.
The Motorola protests are also interesting in that they have the potential to link up workers around the world. As part of 4,000 layoffs world-wide, including 750 at Motorola Mobility's Chicago headquarters, Motorola's China staff are subject to the same brutal reductions as workers in multiple places around the world. Drawing the circle even wider, their fate is part of the same story as that of blue-collar manufacturing workers fired in the 2009 closure of Motorola's Hangzhou handset factory. Motorola's struggle to make a profit these past few years has brought the same sudden cuts to workers of all kinds. If employees around the globe facing a similar fate can identify with each other, the protests might evolve into something more than they currently are.
The author is an American freelance writer currently researching labor and social issues in China.
http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20120831/001372acd7d311aa99a432.jpg
A Motorola employee outside the company building in Beijing. [Photo/China Daily]
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China.org.cn, September 1, 2012
http://www.china.org.cn/opinion/2012-09/01/content_26391770.htm
In isolation, small voices remain unheard-Chinese Motorla Workers Protest
By Jasmine Li
On Aug. 15, approximately 400 employees gathered outside Motorola's Nanjing office , carrying banners printed with messages such as "we reject violent layoffs, we demand fair negotiations" (反对暴力裁员,要求对等协商). They were joined on Aug. 17 by 200 employees outside Motorola Beijing.
As part of a plan to turn around the financially-struggling mobile phone manufacturer after its acquisition of Motorola Mobility, Google announced a plan to cut 4,000 Motorola employees worldwide, including over 1,000 in China. The cuts target primarily skilled software engineers at Motorola's Chinese R&D centers, as the company narrows its focus to a few models. Motorola also plans to close its Shanghai and Nanjing R&D centers, concentrating its research efforts in Beijing.
Despite raising an exciting ruckus, the unrest already seems to be fading from view.
China's contemporary labor movement has seen mounting levels of organized worker action in recent years, ranging from defense of workers' rights to demands for higher wages and better union representation.
http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20120831/001372acd7d311aa997531.jpg
Employees of Motorola Mobility Nanjing R&D Center protest the reduction of workforce outside the office building. [Photo: it.sohu.com]
It is tempting to read the Motorola protests as a catalyst for the expansion of the labor movement into the realm of skilled technical workers, where such struggles are basically unheard of. But the protests are more of a fluke than anything representative of the future of the labor movement.
Curiously, the protests were organized in response to an anomaly in China's present course of growth. This is a fight over severance compensation and cuts in a sector where, generally, things are moving in a positive direction. Most of the protesters during the past two weeks were college-educated technical workers (62 percent of those at the Nanjing center have master's degrees, according to China Daily) with fairly good job prospects, given government incentives and strategic growth initiatives in the electronics industry.
In the past few years, cities all over China, from Harbin to Shanghai and Wuhan, have built high-tech development zones and encouraged the growth of R&D in their jurisdictions ― the country as a whole has maintained over ten percent annual growth in spending on R&D, according to the Global R&D Spending Forecast published by R&D magazine. Predictably, electronics companies, including international giants like Microsoft to domestic enterprises like Huawei, continue to open up R&D centers in China. As a sector, IT in China is not shrinking but growing. So, despite Motorola's recent cutbacks , downsizings like this are not likely to become the norm any time soon.
The ease with which the situation was resolved in Beijing is fairly indicative of where these protests will lead. In Beijing, where the majority of Motorola's China cuts were made, some workers settled on Aug.21 for an improvement to the layoff package-a housing stipend plus compensation for unused annual leave. The rapid settlement reflects the fairly good job prospects in Beijing.
Nanjing workers have held out because of a gloomier market, but their struggle is nevertheless unlikely to evolve into anything more than haggling, an isolated battle over a one-time compensation package. Additionally, there's nothing particularly innovative about the Nanjing workers' demands, neither will they set precedents for future struggles. If this were a battle over salaries or conditions of work, it might set the bar for future encounters. But as a fight over a severance package, it can do little more than win a few extra scraps out of the collateral damage of Motorola's restructuring.
Despite the unusual nature of the case, workers' demands for more voice-for negotiations, as their banner stated-in opposition to their treatment as mere money-losing investments for Motorola, are central demands of the labor movement as a whole. The hollowness of trade union representation and Chinese labor law is another important thread of China's larger labor movement, in line with labor activists' calls for better worker representation. Among college-educated workers, only teachers appear to engage in any frequent organizing to express grievances in the workplace. This action by skilled IT workers, though limited in its scope, is still the highest level of organization the sector has seen thus far.
The Motorola protests are also interesting in that they have the potential to link up workers around the world. As part of 4,000 layoffs world-wide, including 750 at Motorola Mobility's Chicago headquarters, Motorola's China staff are subject to the same brutal reductions as workers in multiple places around the world. Drawing the circle even wider, their fate is part of the same story as that of blue-collar manufacturing workers fired in the 2009 closure of Motorola's Hangzhou handset factory. Motorola's struggle to make a profit these past few years has brought the same sudden cuts to workers of all kinds. If employees around the globe facing a similar fate can identify with each other, the protests might evolve into something more than they currently are.
The author is an American freelance writer currently researching labor and social issues in China.
http://images.china.cn/attachement/jpg/site1007/20120831/001372acd7d311aa99a432.jpg
A Motorola employee outside the company building in Beijing. [Photo/China Daily]
__._,_.___
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You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "LaborTech" group.
To post to this group, send email to [email protected]
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]
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