One boss.. .. One struggle electronics in S.E. Asia
Rachael Grossman
Penang, Kaoshing, Taichung-all evoke images of distant,exotic places. But the reality behind these names is any thing but exotic, for these are some of the Asian cities where women labor long hours in electronic plants. National Semiconductor,Intel, Fair child, General Instruments are just a few of the many multinational electronics corporations who have set up assembly operations all over Asia. Instead of paying minimum wages of $2.30 per hour in the U.S. ($2.50 in California),these companies pay employees $2.30 per day or less in their Asian assembly plants. Motorola executives brag that production costs in their Korean factory are 1/10 those of their Phoenix, Arizona plant.
The companies benefit from great reductions in taxes and tariffs, even 10 year tax holidays from the Asian governments. Host countries build the factories, train workers, provide electricity, water, telecommunications. They do not impose pollution or health and safety standards on the electronics corporations. The main attraction for these companies going to Asia is the "cheap, stable" labor force. Most of the host Asian countries prohibit or very severely restrict unions. There are no minimum wage laws, no unemployment insurance, no disability insurance for these corporations to worry about. The corporate executives try to sugarcoat this reality with their statements that Asian women are much harder working, more dexterous, patient, and obedient than American workers.
Asian women have traditionally played important roles in their economies and societies, working alongside their families and villagers in the fields, producing needed items in their home industries, and serving as traders and merchants in many Asian communities. But the autonomy of these village societies has been undermined by foreign economic and political influences and domestic governmental policies. Women have lost much of their traditional prestige and positions due to the capitalization of agricultural methods and the competition from imported goods. Thus, they and their families have moved to the large cities in search of work.
Here is where National Semiconductor, Motorola, Fairchild come back into view. They have discovered these Asian cities filled with people begging for work. The host governments see the jobs offered by these companies as stopgap measures to take care of unemployment and social unrest. These electronics companies impose difficult conditions on the Asian workers, 80%of whom are women. Workers hunch over microscopes for hours on end, assembling microscopic components and inhaling toxic fumes and dust. In Korea, the government does not consider electronics work to be "high risk" enough to come under the jurisdiction of protective laws. Yet in Korea alone, 95% of the workers develop eyestrain, astigmatism or chronic conjunctivitis within the first year of employment.
Socially and psychologically, this work is very stressful. The foreign managers impose quotes that force the women to work under intense pressure the entire day. These jobs are also very unstable, subject to the fluctuations of the electronics industry. These women have· to cope with the frustrations of producing luxury goods--TVs, watches, tape recorders which they can never afford with their small salaries. Yet foreign and domestic companies flood these countries with advertising that pushes a high consumption lifestyle. Thus workers spend large portions of their small salaries on makeup and clothing to imitate the people in the advertisements. The companies contribute to this by selling cosmetics in company operated beauty courses and by setting up the beauty contests.
Electronics workers here (i.e., in the US) and in Asia often work for the same employer. Close to home, workers at Semimetals, a subsidiary of General Instruments in Mountain View, California, have just held an organizing drive. Though they didn't win the vote for union recognition, they established a strong base on which they can build future organizing efforts. Last year, their sisters in the Taiwanese assembly plant of General Instruments organized the first walkout of the entire production line because the company refused to give the customary annual bonus of half a month's pay. In the face of this work stoppage, the company compromised with a bonus of one fourth of a month's wages. Though the workers were not totally satisfied with this settlement they saw the benefits of collective action.
If the workers in Singapore or California try to organize, the companies threaten to move their plants. By threatening to do this the companies set up competition between workers in the U.S. and Asia--"those workers over there are taking our jobs away". But it isn't "those workers over there" who are taking the jobs away, it is the corporations who are doing this, based on cold profit motives.
From:
Union WAGE, March/April 1977, n . 40 P.O. Box 462, Berkeley, California 94701 , USA.
