This is fantastic news! You may not have heard about it yet, but Chinese sweatshop factory managers are encountering labor shortages for the first time as the balance of power swings to fed-up migrant workers.

Unrest is stirring among Chinese factory workers
“Walkouts may signal a limit to cheap labor
Heralded by an unprecedented series of walkouts, the first stirrings of unrest have emerged among the millions of youthful migrant workers who supply seemingly inexhaustible cheap labor for the vast expanse of factories in China’s booming Pearl River Delta.

Stella International Ltd., a Taiwanese-owned shoe manufacturer employing 42,000 people in and around Dongguan, faced strikes this spring that turned violent. At one point, more than 500 rampaging workers sacked company facilities and severely injured a Stella executive, leading hundreds of police to enter the factory and round up ringleaders.

Jack Chiang, Stella’s chief executive officer suggested that several factors have contributed to the shift in attitude. On the one hand, he acknowledged, assembly-line wages have not risen in recent years nearly as fast as the cost of living. And image-conscious US retailers who buy Dongguan’s shoes have demanded better treatment and human rights counseling for the workers, encouraging them to demand change. Finally, Chiang added, broader general freedoms in the country have reduced the Chinese people’s traditional fear of authority, and not just among factory workers. Protests by farmers and others, many of them violent, have broken out with increasing frequency across the country recently.

China curbs its toy sweatshops as workers stay away
“FOR YEARS the sprawling factories of southern China have provided cheap labour for the world’s toy makers. Typically, labour costs in China amount to only 2{a9f0d31f6175b3e4775e11a66c07db268fb74408d6095f6b46eeec420c0e9f62}-5{a9f0d31f6175b3e4775e11a66c07db268fb74408d6095f6b46eeec420c0e9f62} of the retail price of most toys and, until recently, migrant workers flocked to the south from the poorest rural areas, undeterred by atrocious working conditions.

Their profits could be under threat, however, after the authorities last week announced a clampdown on sweatshop conditions to head off a shortage of workers who are finding less oppressive work elsewhere.”

Lets hope this signals not just the limit to- but the end to cheap labour in China

• Asian Labour News – An online database of news about workers in Southeast Asia and China and the issues that affect them.