Presentation at SYSU

1. The Foxconn incidents:
a wake up call for workers, communities and the
government
Prof. He Gaochao
School of Government
Sun Yat-Sen University

2. 3 wake-up call events
• 87 female workers burned to death in
1993 (1993年深圳致丽玩具厂大火)
• 15 young workers suicide in 2010
• 2000 workers strike in Nanhai Honda in
2010
• 40,000 fingers lost annually in PRD
• Endless mine incidents (2003 矿难：35% vs. 80%）
• …

3. Two type of sweatshop
Traditional Modem Hi Tech
Sweatshop Sweatshop
Production Dirty, noisy, Clean, quiet,
environment dangers, and repetitive, and
physical demanding mental demanding
Management
regime Dictatorial Dictatorial

4. Labor regime in questions
• 19th Century style of sweatshop
– Horrible production environment and
dictatorial production regime
• High tech labor camp
– Modern production environment, but
dictatorial production regime

5. Three type of resistance
• Individual right defending
• Suicide
• Collective action

6. New labor regime in demand
• New discourse of “bottom line socialism”
• Strong union
• Strong legislations
• Strong government monitoring
• More political space