Election Day in the US, VOTE

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10/20

Today we made our visit to the Prosperous Company where we had been invited to assist it helping management reduce employee dissatisfaction as indicated by a very high rate of turnover. We were accompanied by four colleagues from social work here, including two 4th year undergraduates who had completed a field experience in an industrial social work position in Shenzhen.

We were met at the train by the corporate van and proceeded through a typical Chinese industrial landscape of broken pavement, rows of small shops selling phone cards, noodles, and the ever essential ball bearings until we reached the entrance to the “Dongguan Textile Export Manufacturers Zone”. The road was now newly paved and the road sides were now lined with tall iron fences behind which rose three story factories and workers dorms. A similar scene awaited us at Prosperous; the large courtyard was surrounded by two three story manufacturing buildings ad two large worker dorms.

We took a tour of one of the assembly areas devoted to putting together Adidas knapsacks, gym bags, and school bags. There were lines of sewing machines, perhaps 400 in total on the floor and workers were engaged in careful work with a small part of the finished item, i.e. attaching the zipper to the two pieces of the top of the gym bag. Once they had finished a set amount (30-40) they would get up and walk then over to the next station.

Over the next four hours our team (me, Ellen, and four social worker colleagues) met with workers in groups of four to discuss the workplace situation. This is ground zero of the migrant worker dynamic in the PRC and we received fairly uncensored comments from most. While we had already assessed that this site offered “better than most” conditions, this was confirmed by the interviews. Pay met he legally required minimums (730 RMB/month or about $100 US), the dorm rooms were adequate in a Chinese context (four bunk beds to a room that was 12’ X 20’ with no electrical outlets) and, somewhat controversially, there was a five and half day work week with a 60 hour ceiling on weekly work. Workers are motivated to work as many hours as possible, and bristle at this unusual employer imposed limit. With overtime, the average monthly wage is about 13000 RMB ($185 US) and the dorm costs and food costs ($5.20 and $21 a month respectively) were deducted. Additional expenses for workers were limited to small personal objects or an hour or two at a nearby internet café. The remainder would be saved, either to turn over to the family in the rural home village or as the foundation for opening a small business.

Almost everyone we interviewed came from the countryside with a large number from Sichuan, a large and poor inland province. They return home once a year during the “Spring Festival” (Lunar New Year’s). Since our project is ostensibly to help stem the high turnover in this factory, we solicited the workers thoughts on this. Almost to a person, and with out missing a beat, they stated that better wages would be the answer (not the answer the management is going to be eager to act upon.) Even if the bosses were motivated to increase wages management is constrained from rising wages by a number of factors. Probably most importantly is the growing squeeze placed on them by the WalMarts of the world, whereby each year they are asked to do more for less. At the same time, inflation has recently emerged as a major problem with increased fuel and commodity costs working their way across the economy. A last impediment is the pressure from other manufacturers; if one company were to consider raising wages they would be visited by others in their industry or other nearby companies, urging them to avoid such a move and stand united with other employers, lest all workers begin demanding increases.

At the same time, the world economic crisis has China anticipating a slowdown in foreign purchases. Last week, the China Daily reported that 50% of the toy manufacturers in the Pearl River Delta would be out of business in the next two years. For China, this may be the opportunity to move up the manufacturing food chain into more technically advanced products, but in the transition there will be hardships for many. With its $1.3 trillion in dollar reserves, China is prepared to buy foreign assets at the depressed prices that now prevail, positioning themselves for what they see as an inevitable spread of Chinese capital, while importing foreign technology and processes. It is upon the success of the government to manage this transition that rests the stability of the country. And if they go unstable, the world is in a tough spot.

October 22-23

These are the days that Ellen and I team teach Social Administration; this week we asked that they reflect on what they could control and what they couldn’t control in increasing the acceptance of social work in China. Some of their responses are worth quoting:

Materialism tells us that the world is changing and developing all the time. Social work will not stay at this poor condition all the time

There are some problems we should deal with. One is the uncertainty that we can’t control is the government’s attitude. Because the government will decide whether to set up the organization and how much funds deserved to appropriate. Other one is the custom we Chinese follow with. Most of us are shame to tell our hardness (hardships) and don’t want to share our secrets to a stranger or someone he/she doesn’t know very well

Fortunately, we are optimisms in the fields of arranging our study and exalting our acqierement (accomplishments). Along with the society developing, there will come up more and more needs for social workers from the schools, the communities, the hospitals, the enterprises, even the governments for instance. In my opinion, it is normal to suffer a period of hard time before social work become stronger and stronger.

As social work student, we believe our profession can help to build a “socially healthy” society and we dream to achieve that goal. Even though our profession is in the early stage and need many different conditions to get a better development, we still want to be a social worker yet we are confuse about our future

We should be careful enough not to be against the interest of the organization and never lose their trust. For example, if I would hold an activity in a factory, I would show the manager how I cut down the budge to save money for the factory, how to arrange a proper timetable in order not to disturb the normal work.

…the most important thing, action! It is useless if just talking about what you will do, what matter is really action. Self-control is difficult but necessity. Take action now, start from myself!

A usual mix of naïveté, determination and lack of self-absorption that we have come to anticipate in our students. As a reminder, undergraduates do not get to choose their major and many of our students were assigned to the major when their exam scores did not earn them a place in their sought after major (business and public administration are much sought after).

October 25

Saturday is our Children’s Palace day, Ellen and I each volunteer in an activity with different groups of parents. As mentioned in earlier posts, Ellen has been working with the parents of children with autism and has broadened her scope of activity to help develop a system of para-educators to assist these students in their public schools. Over the past two years, she has succeeded in turning parents away from their idea that private schooling was the answer (these are largely middle class families) to making requests/demands that the public schools meet their legal requirement to educate all students.

Schools often focus on their brightest students as any success that these students have on the high stakes exams that mark their passing from one level to the next reflects positively on the headmaster and faculty. If your students do well, you will be rewarded monetarily as well as with public acclaim. Contrariwise, if they do poorly, you will be fined (!) as punishment. As a consequence, any student that has “special needs” is often ignored, encouraged to drop out or go to school elsewhere, or socially and educationally ostracized.

My work is with the parents of children who have been treated for cancer and I am now engaged with a small group of PhD. Psychology students from South China Normal University in developing a survey to assess the current state of psycho-social care for these kids and their families.

This week we had our old friend Glenn Quint on the scene and after his series of talks, at the Children’s Palace and elsewhere, I am sure that all of Guangzhou is abuzz. Glenn has been doing national and international consultation on sexuality, birth control, and sexual violence for decades and spent two weeks with us here spreading his knowledge and experience. He gave a lecture to approximately 75 parents of children with disabilities and although it was reported that one or two parents had paroxysmal events at the mention of teen sexuality, the overwhelming response was one of relief and gratitude.

Since then he has talked to youth counselors, caseworkers at a day treatment program and to social work classes in social movements and my graduate seminar. China will never be the same! One night he accompanied me to dinner with two recent SW graduates who were confronting problems with clients, one of whom was a youthful victim of sexual abuse and was not dealing with long suppressed reactions. This was obviously something that could not be addressed in one dinner conversation, but I think a good basis for further discussion was established.

November 1

Ellen and I have just completed a three-day, 14 hour training for social work teachers in the region. Of the 10 in attendance, all but two have their academic focus elsewhere (economics, political science, sociology, public administration) but they have been assigned to teach social work. Overall, it was an engaged group and despite having to have two way translations fr most of the proceedings, we are assured that we had meaningful and productive conversations with the participants. They were anxious to get their grounding in social work and our efforts were divided between teaching participatory learning techniques (EDF) and some basic historical reviews and clinical skills. Together we helped them see the benefits afforded by the required field placement and we look forward to further contact with this local group.

November 3, 2008
Okay, I have got to get this out of here, tomorrow is election day at home and Eli and I will be watching the results, courtesy of the American Chamber of Commerce, in a lux hotel. I hope it is an early morning for us and that we can end the national disgrace of the past eight years. I will write again in a couple of weeks.

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Photos

Counseling consultation
I received a call requesting a consultation with two new social workers who were employed at the only day treatment program in Guangzhou. It was a complicated case, with great vegetarian food, and Glenn added his keen insights

On the train to Dongguan
This 4th year student had done a field placement in a factory last year, and was our localized expert on the trip to the Adidas bag factory.

Top speed, 210 KM
Over the years this train from Guangzhou to Shenzhen has received improvements, now hits a brisk 140 MPH as it speeds along the countryside.

Public toilets
A bit grainy (Phone camera) but clean, free and readily available on the streets, this open air men's room was my relief station recently

English lesson
Mother (Party Secretary for School of Government) and 14 year old daughter who had written a paper on Wuthering Heights and was seeking some edits, very precocious!

Man at work
Eli cooked up a storm one evening and his diners were well satisfied!!

Weichao and Song
She is the special education specialist at the Children's Palace, he is a copywriter and we had a nice dinner (at their request, I made pizza... in a wok!)

Roy
He was our English teacher for our first visit here, now graduated and working for the Metro in HR, a sweetheart and a homeboy from Guangzhou!

Comments

[Annie Tiberio Cameron]

we voted for you two!
Love your students' quotes above - very telling. Wondering if the fact that these students generally are assigned a "second-rate" major affects their willingness to achieve on a high level? Hope you and Ellen win your elections. Glad to have election day over later today, and hopefully with GREAT results.