Profit Drives Dongguan To Pform Its Shoes

It's time for Dongguan to say goodbye.

Summers used to be very grand.

For the first generation of migrant workers in Dongguan, they are faced with an "impossible farewell".

For Dongguan itself, it is necessary to have the courage to shake off yesterday.

In the history of China's market economy development, Dongguan is a miracle.

The small town has absorbed tens of millions of migrant workers, created hundreds of times the output value of amplification, and the highest per capita disposable income in the mainland.

Few remote villages in the mainland of China have heard of Dongguan's name, or even say that Dongguan has become a gene that flows in the blood of inland Chinese people.

But miracles are not synonymous with perfection. The other side of manufacturing profits is the cost of labor force and environment, land and raw materials, which are depressed. It is a low exchange rate. The miracle is based on the gap formed by this kind of cost depression.

When the foundation is gradually rising and the profit margins are getting smaller and smaller, the miracle of Dongguan is no wonder.

Dongguan, who is not willing to slide from its already prominent position, must bid farewell to the gap that it will not return yesterday, and create a base beyond the average economic base as a support for upgrading profits.

At that time, the original "foundation" - the foreign laborers and their small and medium cost factories and low-end service industries at the lowest cost reached an awkward junctions. Although they had already been deeply dependent on Dongguan's land, they had to leave.

When China's market economy began to bid farewell to the era of ultra low cost, farewell to many successful dramas, but in Dongguan more dramatic.

This is not necessarily the tragedy of Dongguan, because when upgrading beyond the average economy becomes a universal demand, gaining the outstanding market position and profit becomes the next chasing miracle.

In the last competition of manufacturing profit miracle, Dongguan achieved its advantage through its location and policy advantages.

But what is Dongguan's winning in this round of industrial upgrading? Behind the lottery, whose exit is gloomy? How to weaken the shadow left by this huge group exit and make the upgrading of the industry not become a mirage, but a real sunshine? This is not only a topic of Dongguan.

When the first generation of migrant workers came to the curtain, those workers over ten years of age were also faced with the "working age" of leaving the migrant workers. If so, the "first year" of the first generation of migrant workers in Dongguan would be over ten years.

Since the end of 2007, those who have "ten years of service" are facing the same result - leaving.

Lai Caiyun, a woman worker, is one of them.

In April 23rd, she was informed of the dismissal, and she collapsed on the cement floor in front of the shoe factory.

For her and her peers, Dongguan's pformation is difficult to understand at the moment, but it must be borne by them at the most direct cost.

Layoffs storm in April 23, 2008, Dongguan Guoxin shoes Tangxia factory area.

Lai Caiyun, a woman worker, fell on the floor of the cement, with blood on her face and five teeth missing.

All this stems from two days' layoff notice.

In April 21st, more than 400 employees of the Guoxin shoe industry, including Lai Caiyun, received the notice that the contract expired.

Its content shows: the labor contract signed by the Guoxin shoe industry and these employees has expired on April 22, 2008 and will not be renewed.

The way of compensation is to compensate half a month's wages per person's working life.

Most of the more than 400 people who were laid off were employees aged 4 to 11 years, 87 of whom worked for ten years.

The notice of dismissal was sudden.

More than 400 employees who are not mentally prepared have gathered in front of the office building of Guoxin shoe industry, hoping to get the factory's claim.

It was at this time that Lai Caiyun, who was so worried, fell to the concrete board in front of the office building.

Afterwards, she was sent to the hospital by a workmate.

The more than 400 did not disperse. They began to organize and seek labor arbitration in Tangxia town government and labor department, but failed.

In April 29th, they finally got the Dongguan Labor Bureau's statement: 87 employees who worked for more than ten years were not allowed to dismiss, and the rest of the employees were paid more than 500 yuan per person.

Guoxin shoe industry finally accepted the arbitration result.

More than 30 of the 87 employees have renewed their fixed term labor contracts according to the labor contract law, and over 50 said they were "very cold" and refused to renew their contracts.

It seems that the "layoffs storm" has come to an end, but something unusual has happened afterwards.

Gong Yuanwen, a security guard in the Tangxia factory area of Guoxin shoe industry, has worked in the Guoxin shoe industry for 13 years and 3 months in Hunan, Yongzhou.

In April 21st, there was no Gong Yuanwen's name on the "redundancy list", but to his surprise, the factory suddenly hired a group of full-time security guards from the security company to replace the 19 security work he led.

And this kind of mobilization, as Gong Yuanwen, the leader of the security guard, has not been explained by the factory.

Then, on the evening of May 8th, the raw materials such as leather of Guoxin shoes factory in Tangxia were all removed by a truck, and the storeroom was basically empty.

"Pull to Dalang factory area", Guoxin shoe industry staff affirmatively said.

All kinds of expressions are spread: "the factory is not done!" "after hearing that there are still the last batch of goods, we can only get the minimum wage of 770 yuan! This is not a rush!"

"These two years are too common in Dongguan."

The 40 year old engineer said.

Lin Jinghao, a Hong Kong boss who tried to contact the Guoxin shoe industry, has failed.

According to staff introduction, Lin Jinghao rarely appeared, and the daily manager was a manager Chen.

But Chen has been on vacation in Shanghai recently. The director of the Tangxia factory in Guoxin shoe industry is a production supervisor named Guo Fengsheng.

The employees of Guoxin shoes industry know well about the operation of their factories.

Founded in 1985, Guoxin shoe industry Co., Ltd. is the first group of Hong Kong funded enterprises in Dongguan.

Like the Pearl River Delta economic miracle at zero starting point, the national letter shoe industry was only a small workshop of more than 10 people at the beginning.

From 2000 to 2003, this small workshop has become the boss of Dongguan's slippers industry, with a staff of more than 2200 people.

Its products in the United States, Japan, South Africa and other international markets are well known.

But in the past two years, due to the international market downturn, the rising cost of raw materials and the appreciation of the renminbi, the shoe factories are far less prosperous than the previous two years.

"In 2007, Guoxin shoe industry was at a loss."

A senior executive of the Guoxin shoe industry, who did not want to be named, told reporters that "compared with last year, the cost of light soles has more than doubled." in April 21st, the layoff notice involved more than half of the employees of the old shoe factory, and more than 900 workers were laid off more than 400, leaving more than 100 jobs automatically.

Of the remaining employees, 80% are older employees who have worked for more than 10 years, with an average age of 36 years. The largest is nearly 50 years old and the youngest is 29 years old.

In May 24th, the reporter learned that employees under three years of age have been cut off by Guoxin shoe factory. At present, there are only a batch of veteran employees aged ten years.

All of this makes the employees of Guoxin shoe industry feel anxious.

They can't wait to get a result: to pay for bankruptcy, or to continue working.

"I will be able to give me six months' salary as compensation."

Gong Yuanwen did not have any hope of starting up.

"Saturday and Sunday do not work, do not work overtime at night, what is the meaning of this job?" Pan Jun, who is already more than 40 years old, has expressed his desire to continue his work.

But they never got the explanation from the factory.

In June, the worries of employees finally came true.

On the 14 day, the Guoxin shoe industry broke off more than 200 employees of the "old staff". On the 16 day, Guoxin proposed that every employee should pay three months' salary. Most of the employees signed the name according to the requirements. On the 17 day, Guoxin indicated that it was no longer compensated by the signature number of less than 90%. On the 18 day, more than 100 old employees protested, gathered at the gate of Guoxin plastic factory, another factory in the town of Lin Jinghao, the boss of Tangxia. Subsequently, the Government Petition Office of Tangxia town proposed that the Guoxin boss could not find it, and the industrial park of the Guoxin shoe industry was able to compensate employees for the monthly wages and repatriate these "old employees".

It is understood that Lin Jing ho may have returned to Hongkong. Her son's shoe factory opened in Dalang, Dongguan, is not related to the dispute because of different legal persons.

As of press time, more than 100 "old employees" still wait for negotiation at Guoxin plastic factory.

In the ten year's curtain call, the "layoff storm" was far more than the Guoxin shoe industry.

"There are so many disputes that I can't remember how many times.

Every day, sometimes, several times a day! "Wang Dongsheng, a member of the public security joint defense team in Tangxia town of Dongguan, has a deep understanding, because every time a dispute arises, they have to rush to the scene to maintain order.

"It wasn't that many! Since the end of 2007, it has started to grow, mostly because the factory is going to cut off the old employees, and it has not been done well in compensation."

"In the first quarter of 2008, labor arbitration increased by 4.5 times compared with the previous year."

Wu Deyang, deputy director of the labor relations division of the Dongguan Labor Bureau, told the "Orient orient weekly" reporter that "in fact, it is increasing every year, but the first quarter of this year did increase more severely."

There are three reasons: one is the implementation of the labor contract law, the two is no arbitration fees, and the three is the survival difficulties of enterprises.

"Look at the newspaper here every day, where there are disputes over layoffs. I didn't expect to fall on my head."

Cheng Jun said sullen, "I have been idle for more than 20 days."

Cheng Jun is not a farmer. He is a household registered population in Jiangjin District of Chongqing. After he was laid off in 1997, he came to work in Guoxin shoe industry. He has worked for 11 years.

In April 21st, there was his name on the "layoff notice". His workmates joked with him: "Cheng Jun is the second time laid-off!" "I have a more than 60 year old man, and two children, a high school and a primary school. What do you think I should do?" Cheng Jun did not get much white hair. His wife, he si dyed black again, in order to "look younger and look for work".

In May 20th, Cheng Jun left Dongguan and returned to Chongqing to take care of the more than 60 year old parents who had been hit by the earthquake, and planned to work in Chongqing.

The story of "leaving" is constantly being staged in Dongguan, one of which is a senior dyeing teacher, Lao Liu, from a dyeing factory.

Lao Liu is a Daxian man in Sichuan. In the early 90s of last century, because he could not read a book, he came to the South with the old Liu and the "young labor force" in the village.

But at that time, the job opportunities in the South were not as many as imagined. Lao Liu and the "blind flow army" could not find a job. They spent the night under the flyover, avoiding the security guards who were checking temporary residence permits, sleeping in the grave.

Relying on the workers in the factory for relief, until there is no guarantee that they can eat a steamed bread every day.

Some of them started stealing and robbing, and Liu Lao, who was hungry for two days, was lucky to be hired by a workshop dyeing factory.

Starting from the dyeing factory, Lao Liu gradually became a senior dyeing teacher.

However, since the second half of 2007, the Pearl River Delta garment enterprises based on export processing were affected by factors such as RMB appreciation and raw material price increase.

The closure of the garment factory directly broke the source of the dyed factory, and some of the owners of the garment factories who had already run away still owed the processing fees of dyeing factories.

In March 2008, the dye factory went bankrupt and Lao Liu disappeared.

"I can't find anyone. I heard that I went home.

This is the way to work. The factory is gone.