China may be a burgeoning economic powerhouse, but there are still some issues of concern.
A Chinese supplier of Apple Computer's iPod embroiled in a dispute over its labor policies has been told to let its more than 200,000 workers set up a trade union, reports said Friday.
This looks like another case of fascism: The mixing of government and business.
This is an obvious example of the differences in business here and around the globe.
Hongfujin Precision Industry Co. is on a list of companies in the southern city of Shenzhen that have been ordered to set up such a union, which would be affiliated to the government's All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.
That's kind of scary. They were "ordered" to set up the union, and they have no choice in its affiliation. Glad you don't own a business in China?
China does not allow independent labor organizing, but in recent years it has been pushing foreign invested companies to allow the state-sanctioned labor groups. Such groups are not industry-wide, but represent workers in a single company or sales outlet. They traditionally have been allied with management.
It's also not shocking that they are aligned with management.
Recently there have been accusations.
Earlier this week, amid a wave of bad publicity Apple Computer Inc. announced it was trying to resolve a controversy over a defamation lawsuit filed in a Shenzhen court by Hongfujin against two journalists who wrote a story criticizing treatment of workers on its iPod assembly lines.
Isn't it amazing how bad PR can get people and companies to do things they never intended to do.
The allegations about Hongfujin's labor conditions first surfaced in an article in the British newspaper the Mail on Sunday, which reported in June that workers were being paid below minimum wages and being forced to work 15-hour days making the iconic iPods.
An investigation was then called for.
Cupertino, California-based Apple responded by promising to immediately investigate conditions at the factory. It issued a report earlier this month saying that it found some violations of its stringent code of conduct but no serious labor abuses. It pledged to immediately redress some problems with overtime, employee accommodations and administrative issues.
Well, here's hoping they get all this straightened out. I'm just glad I live in a country that generally doesn't force me to do what they think is best for my business. Generally.
But there is one final interesting tidbit.
The Xinhua report said the ACFTU initially requested the factory set up a union in late 2004. It said the company recently was reminded to comply before the end of this year. It also said that Foxconn (the parent company of IPod manufacturer Hongfujin) already has a Communist Party branch in Shenzhen.
Hmmmm.
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