Multinationals

http://www.surefish.co.uk/campaigns/features/0503_tomato_letters.htm

What do you mean "increase" working conditions? Do you perhaps mean improve working conditions? Would you say that- for example- an open-cast gold mine causing immense damage to agriculture and fisheries by cyanide pollution, but employing a few thousand people, would benefit the country- the people of the country?
To assert that this would always benefit the countries concerned is manifestly not true. Given that no government, no matter how much it says it supports globalisation- is willing to allow completely open borders for emigrants- a prerequisite of a global labour market- or stop subsidising the industries it thinks most vital- even they are selective in their application. I also don't think the boards of directors of those companies would be very keen on an efficient international tax system.

Reply 2

Douglas

9

Bismarck

Do you think making it illegal for foreign firms to open up factories in poor countries would help the people in those poor countries? By "help" I mean do you think the working conditions, salary, and amount of jobs would increase.

How do you increase jobs by decreasing the potential labor market.

I'll bet the peasants in China pay more homage to Tommy Hilfiger than they do chairman Mao.

Reply 3

JonD

5

When asked why worker morale was so low, an employee at the locally-owned Wenchi canning factory in Ghana said that none of them had been paid in 3 years. Any job that actually pays is going to help this blighted continent.

Reply 4

Jump

18

JonD

When asked why worker morale was so low, an employee at the locally-owned Wenchi canning factory in Ghana said that none of them had been paid in 3 years. Any job that actually pays is going to help this blighted continent.

Did you actually speak to this employee? :rolleyes:

More fool anyone who works for 3 years without money to live off.

I think that many people in here don't seem to realise that £2 a day isn't as bad as it seems as the cost of living is far less in various other countries. Furthermore without such jobs the workers would most likely be unemployed and possibly reduced to begging/stealing. Obviously it isn't an ideal situation but the worst thing that anyone could do to the workers is prevent such outsourcing.

Reply 5

JonD

5

jumpunderaboat

Did you actually speak to this employee? :rolleyes:

No, not that it makes any difference.

Claire Short (former development secretary)

Productivity levels were low because workforce morale was low - a case study carried out on the Wenchi canning factory in 1990 revealed that they had not been paid for three years.

Reply 6

Jump

18

JonD

No, not that it makes any difference.

http://www.surefish.co.uk/campaigns/features/0503_tomato_letters.htm

Refer to the second part of my post. :smile:

Reply 7

jumpunderaboat

Did you actually speak to this employee? :rolleyes:

More fool anyone who works for 3 years without money to live off.

These people usually get paid in kind, which is better than getting nothing.

Reply 8

Given the people they are working for, the only "kind" they get paid in is probably not getting a bullet through the back of the head.

Reply 9

The record of the CCP.

Reply 10

Agha Zain

jumpunderaboat

Did you actually speak to this employee? :rolleyes:

More fool anyone who works for 3 years without money to live off.

I think that many people in here don't seem to realise that £2 a day isn't as bad as it seems as the cost of living is far less in various other countries. Furthermore without such jobs the workers would most likely be unemployed and possibly reduced to begging/stealing. Obviously it isn't an ideal situation but the worst thing that anyone could do to the workers is prevent such outsourcing.

I think you are not understanding their problem here. These people who have worked for 3 years without a pay have nowhere else to go. There is unemployment everywhere. They will be very happy just to be employed. Atleast they have hope of getting paid, unlike a person who is not working.

Zain

Reply 11

Weejimmie

The record of the CCP.

I lived in the USSR for a third of my life and I can assure you that no one got killed for not working. Most were just reassigned from one useless job to another. This was the only way to keep "unemployment" down since there were quite a few alcoholics weren't able to work in any meaningfull capacity.

Once the Soviet Union disintegrated, the government wasn't giving factories enough money to pay their workers, which resulted in workers getting whatever they produced as payment. They then bartered those goods for whatever goods/services they needed. Not very efficient, but still possible to survive on.

Reply 12

TheVlad

That is true, I remember when my dad got part of his salary as a truckload of melons. That was a good month for a little kid like me.

Reply 13

I heard of someone getting paid in funeral caskets in Siberia. :smile:

Reply 14

Douglas

9

Bismarck

I heard of someone getting paid in funeral caskets in Siberia. :smile:

Would that be "make one"..."get one free"?

Reply 15

Douglas

9

TheVlad

That is true, I remember when my dad got part of his salary as a truckload of melons. That was a good month for a little kid like me.

How many melons can a little kid eat in a month??

Reply 16

Bismarck: We are not discussing the USSR but China, so what happened in the later USSR is irrelevant. One of the more frightening things about China is that the CCP still seems to believe in its absolute wisdom and right to rule, something which vanished before- and was one of the factors that helped cause- the actual fall of the USSR and its subject states. Going by reports of the power of CCP cadres in parts of rural China it is perfectly possible that the factory does make a profit, but the management and the local appartchiks can keep the workers unpaid by pressure and threats.

Reply 17

Weejimmie

Bismarck: We are not discussing the USSR but China, so what happened in the later USSR is irrelevant. One of the more frightening things about China is that the CCP still seems to believe in its absolute wisdom and right to rule, something which vanished before- and was one of the factors that helped cause- the actual fall of the USSR and its subject states. Going by reports of the power of CCP cadres in parts of rural China it is perfectly possible that the factory does make a profit, but the management and the local appartchiks can keep the workers unpaid by pressure and threats.

Which is all the more reason to support the efforts of multinationals to build factories in China. They would never get away with not paying their workers.

Douglas

Would that be "make one"..."get one free"?

It certainly wasn't "use one, get one free" :cool:

Reply 18