VOA慢速英语2010年-Economics Report - Young Workers Lead

This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.

Factory labor¹ built China into the world's third largest economy, after the United States and Japan. Now something else is building: labor tensions.

China bars labor unions independent of the Communist Party. But George Haley at the University of New Haven² in Connecticut says labor unrest is common.

GEORGE HALEY: "This really isn’t new. There has been a tremendous amount of agitation³ among workers for higher pay for years."

Disputes are especially common in the Pearl River manufacturing area in southeastern China. Companies there have resisted raising wages.

For years, millions of Chinese from inland provinces have flooded into eastern industrial centers. But young workers are increasingly dissatisfied with the pay and working conditions.

Inflation hurts, too. China's export-driven economy has been recovering from the worldwide downturn. The growth rate in the first three months of this year was nearly twelve percent. But China could raise interest rates to control growth and inflation. Prices roses in May at the highest rate in a year and a half.

Family members of Foxconn worker Ma Xiangquian protest outside a company center in Shenzhen in May. A series of suicides by Foxconn workers has brought attention to pay and working conditions at the electronics maker⁴

Migrants also face added costs for services that were free in the past, like medical care and education.

The government does not report on migrant unemployment. But media reports say an estimated twenty million migrant workers returned home last year after losing their jobs.

Labor unrest in China takes different forms. Recent strikes against foreign companies have included suppliers for Japanese car makers⁵ Honda and Toyota.

In Shenzhen, at least ten employees at factories owned by Taiwan's Foxconn have killed themselves since January. They complained of long hours and low pay. Foxconn makes Apple iPhones and iPads and electronics for other companies. Foxconn has agreed to double basic pay to nearly three hundred dollars a month.

Foreign-owned companies generally offer the best conditions. But China business expert George Haley says cost pressures are high.

GEORGE HALEY: "So when foreign companies start negotiating with local Chinese suppliers, they really press hard on the prices offered by those Chinese suppliers."

Professor Haley says profit for the average Chinese company is less than five percent. The government has tried to get foreign companies to move factories inland, where pay remains⁶ low.

Some young workers in the south have organized protests using the Internet and mobile phones. What remains unclear is how far this can go before the government reacts to it as a threat.

And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Steve Ember.

 

1 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

2 haven   

n.安全的地方，避难所，庇护所

参考例句：

• It's a real haven at the end of a busy working day.忙碌了一整天后，这真是一个安乐窝。
• The school library is a little haven of peace and quiet.学校的图书馆是一个和平且安静的小避风港。

3 agitation   

n.搅动；搅拌；鼓动，煽动

参考例句：

• Small shopkeepers carried on a long agitation against the big department stores.小店主们长期以来一直在煽动人们反对大型百货商店。
• These materials require constant agitation to keep them in suspension.这些药剂要经常搅动以保持悬浮状态。

4 maker   

n.制造者，制造商

参考例句：

• He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
• A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。

5 makers   

n.制造者，制造商（maker的复数形式）

参考例句：

• The makers of the product assured us that there had been no sacrifice of quality. 这一产品的制造商向我们保证说他们没有牺牲质量。
• The makers are about to launch out a new product. 制造商们马上要生产一种新产品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。