Reality Check | Ephraim Schwartz » Multinationals show true colors in China

July 02, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Multinationals show true colors in China

TAGS: Work visas

"Abandon hope all ye who enter."

The lines above, from Dante's Divine Comedy, are the words that Dante said are engraved over the entrance to hell.

What conjures these words to mind for me is a story in The New York Times from Saturday, June 30, and how it applies to high tech CEOs who insist that their call for more H-1B visas has nothing to do with wanting to pay lower wages.

My point here is that human nature is pretty nasty and we should not expect much in the way of truth or fairness if money is at stake.

The Times story relates that unrest and fear of unrest among tens of millions workers who are being exploited by their employers has led the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress in China to pass legislation to strengthen protections for workers.

"In the past, workers have had to negotiate wages with their employers individually, and China's state-run union has had almost no involvement in setting wages and benefits," notes the article written by The Times' Joseph Kahn and David Barboza.

"Passage of the measure came shortly after officials and the state news media unearthed the widespread use of slave labor in as many as 8,000 brick kilns and small coal mines in Shanxi and Henan Provinces.

"The police have freed nearly 600 workers, many of them teenagers, held against their will in factories owned or operated by well-connected businesspeople and local officials."

So who in the world, you may ask, would object to any legislation to protect these workers?

"The law, enacted by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress over the objections of foreign investors..."

Foreign investors, that's who.

Who are these "foreign investors"? The article doesn't say, but it does quote one Andreas W. Lauffs, head of Baker & McKenzie's employment law group, "which represents many of America's biggest corporations in China."

"It will be more difficult to run a company here," said Lauffs.

It seems companies have even threatened that if labor costs were substantially increased due to this legislation "they would have little choice but to move their operations out of China if the provisions were enacted."

I don't think this is a political issue. Rather, it is an issue of human decency.

If you read the ancient history of Greece and Rome, and, I am afraid the more modern history of the United States, slaves have always been used to maintain the standard of living of slave owners and the economic growth of countries and empires.

On the more local level, my point is if this is the nature of business people, worldwide and in the States, then can we really believe them when they say they want to increase the availability of foreign labor simply because there is a technology shortage? I, for one, don't believe it.

If these foreign investors are willing to look the other way when it comes to inhuman treatment of workers how much easier is it for them to look the other way if it causes just a bit of unemployment?

It is about money, plain and simple. And it always will be.

Posted by Ephraim Schwartz on July 2, 2007 02:11 PM

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