LakeCumberlandBoaters.com

SHANGHAI (AP) -- Factory workers demanding better wages and working conditions are hastening the eventual end of an era of cheap costs that helped make southern coastal China the world's factory floor.

A series of strikes over the past two months have been a rude wakeup call for the many foreign companies that depend on China's low costs to compete overseas, from makers of Christmas trees to manufacturers of gadgets like the iPad.

"China is going to go through a very dramatic period. The big companies are starting to exit. We all see the writing on the wall," said Rick Goodwin, a China trade veteran of 22 years, whose company links foreign buyers with Chinese suppliers.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Companies ... 5.html?x=0


Maybe the rest of the world is finally waking up??? It doesn't say anything about Americans sick of buying chinese goods with low restrictions on quality, but I doubt the news media will ever address this issue.

And once Chinese workers stand up to make more than a dollar a day, production will move to the next hellhole for workers. We have a long way to go before the bottom of the barrel for workers rights is found.

I spent a week in Shanghai two years ago. Let me tell you, the working and living conditions are horrendous except for the higher ups. I saw little old ladies (older than re3 ) working there asses off, no breaks, 12 hour days.

I know you are right Faster, and it makes me sick. China would be in a $h1t storm if all of them walked out, but they do need to eat and that is the only way they felt it possible to get ahead... It's the same way in many other countries.