Give Capitalists the Boot

In a strike that has been going on for more than two weeks, since April 14th, more than 40,000 workers at the Yue Yuen shoe factories located in Dongguan, Guangdong province, are still refusing to return to work. Sports and casual shoe brands including Nike, Puma, and Timberland are made by Yue Yuen, the world’s biggest branded footwear maker and operator of the 1.4 million-square-meter (15 million square-foot) Dongguan complex. Adidas, the company's largest customer, has already moved some of its business to other nearby Chinese factories. Teresa Cheng, an organizer with the International Union League for Brand Responsibility, slammed Adidas for moving some of its orders. "This is the typical behavior of Adidas," she said. "Adidas systematically withdraws its orders and moves them to factories with more exploitative conditions, essentially punishing workers who dare to stand up to sweatshop abuse."

Yue Yuen had 423,000 employees as of 2012 and factories in China, Vietnam and Indonesia. Nike has plenty of flexibility in its supply chain to make up for any production lost by the strike. The company contracts with more than 740 factories, including almost 200 in China. Plus, one of the reasons to use Yue Yuen is because it can shift orders to its other factories in countries like Vietnam.

Workers are pushing Yue Yuen's Taiwanese parent company, Pou Chen, for increased social benefits, compensation for overtime and housing benefits. Some workers are also pushing for a 30% salary increase.

"This is a result of the long-term exploitation of this big enterprise," said Suki Chung, the executive director of Hong Kong nonprofit Labor Action China. "Workers' demands are very clear."  According to Suki Chung, workers in southern China are now worried about long-term job security, leading them to ask for more than just higher wages. "Workers are in a very insecure position," she said. "They are paranoid they will lose their jobs. If they don't fight at the moment, the factory could be gone very soon."

Strikers say that they are not being paid the full amount of social insurance and housing benefits owed to them. Additionally, they say their work contracts are fraudulent, preventing them from enrolling their children in local schools.

Luo, one of the striking workers, explained "No matter if we will succeed or not, it will be recorded in history. It will be effective in improving workers working conditions and social benefits in the future."