Labor Unrest In China

Staff work at a production line in a factory in China's Guangdong province Photo: Reuters

Global Slowdown Triggers China Factory Strikes -- The Telegraph

Factory strikes have spread across China as slowing orders from the West and increasing wage pressure triggers unrest.

Thousands of workers have downed tools from the factory hotspot in the east of Guangdong province, to sports and electronics plants to the south and west.

The social tension comes as manufacturing orders are slowing in China in the wake of slowing external demand from trade partners hit by the eurozone debt crisis.

"We are willing to work but you must also pay us enough to survive, even during the financial crisis we didn't see pressure like this," factory workers told Reuters.

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My Comment: Because China's labor pool is huge .... labor shortages and high wages to attract workers is NOT the rule. People work where they can .... and for the wages that the employers decide to give. But .... longshoreman, employees in large factories, and workers in critical industries ... they are now all starting to voice their concerns, and as the world's economic slowdown start to hit China .... these concerns (I predict) will soon be translated into social/economic/and political protests. This could get very ugly very quickly, and impact Chinese national security and its relations with its trading/economic partners and customers.