(Photo by Better Work Programme via Flickr/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Imagine you have a job at a manufacturing company in a bustling city. Great, you might think: a job in this horrible economy. Yet, your schedule is not the regular 9-to-5. Work starts at 7:30 a.m. sharp, with only a short break at noon. If you’re lucky, you might finish by 6 p.m., but most days, you only get home after 9.
Your ‘home’ is a single 12-square-metre room for a family of three in an overcrowded building with questionable living conditions. Less than a home, it’s merely a sleeping place.
Who are you? You are one among millions of migrant factory workers in developing countries, such as India, China, the Philippines, or Vietnam—countries that are either praised or despised for providing unimaginably cheap products and labour. These factory workers are the ones who pay the invisible price of our affordable products.
Migrant factory workers are individuals who leave their hometowns to find opportunities in manufacturing factories. Photos of workers wearing masks and sitting rigidly in their cubicles should not be the only images visible. Now, it must be the untold stories, the abandoned dreams, and the silent strength that break through the 7-9 capitalist schedule.
Outsourcing – Understanding the Global Supply Chain
Outsourcing, the act of delegating labour to foreign suppliers, is not an unusual business strategy. Businesses are profit-driven, so they do everything possible to minimize costs. In developing countries, workers’ salaries are low, labour laws are weak, and productivity is high—this results in an unequal exchange. Most of the profits go to companies from North America and Europe, rather than to local businesses.
Outsourcing does not equal cheap labour. But unethical and profit-driven outsourcing often results in workers’ sacrifices to cut costs. Since the 18th century, the Industrial Revolution has devastated people’s working and living conditions. Under capitalism, companies made use of slave labour, discriminating against generations of African slaves and their descendants. It puts people into timelines that prioritize only profits and environments that know only productivity.
Labour in the Modern Age
In the modern age, slavery and forced labour still exist in different forms. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), in 2022, there were 28 million people in forced labour, with 60 percent involved in the private economy. Thanks to globalization, multinational companies can more easily exploit underdeveloped and developing societies. This is undoubtedly the product of colonialism and imperialism.
Cheap labour and forced labour are, however, different. ILO defines forced labour as any work that the person provides involuntarily and under the threat of a penalty.
Cheap labour is less well defined. Generally, it refers to individuals who work for low pay and are exposed to high-risk working conditions. Cheap labour often comes with unfavourable working and living conditions. Not all cheap labour is forced labour, but we must question how voluntary these workers’ decisions are.
Despite the current narratives around cheap labour, developing countries do not ‘steal’ jobs. Industrial capitalism exports manufacturing jobs to countries that are vulnerable, yet to develop, and often previously colonized, in order to maximize profits. Only multinational corporations gain benefits as they continue the cycles of abuse, injustice, and poverty.
Not Even Close to 9-5
Duc, a Vietnamese factory worker in his 30s, admitted that most of his free time was spent sleeping. He said that sleeping helped him recharge after a long, exhausting day, and at the same time, it kept him from spending more money.
Manufacturing factories start work early in the morning and last well into the evening. Factory workers neglect their personal lives due to the lack of time as well as the exhaustion from repetitive and long hours of work. They earn average to low wages, extending the years needed for a potential retirement, the end goal for many.
Apart from poor working conditions, migrant factory workers also face high levels of job insecurity. Factory workers remain highly vulnerable to fluctuations in the global economy. In 2022, Vietnam experienced a massive layoff of hundreds of thousands of workers, as the country heavily relied on its export market. With Trump’s tariff threats, current factory workers are now again uncertain of their future.
Physical Pain
The insecurity extends to physical risks workers subject their bodies to on the job. When labour laws are loose and workers lack leverage, workplace accidents can be frequent, and the effects devastating. Apart from their obvious health impacts, workplace injuries can threaten workers’ livelihoods by forcing them out of the workforce without alternative means to sustain themselves.
In one Indian auto components company, worker Neetu Devi lost her hand to a malfunctioning press machine. The company refused to give her any compensation, and unable to continue her previous work as a press operator, she was forced into a position with poorer pay. Such stories of workplace accidents are not uncommon, as companies often prioritize cost-cutting measures over safety checks.
For workers in developing countries, one tiny move—be it a policy change in North America or Europe or a malfunctioning company machine—can have profound impacts on their lives.
Workers Have Dreams Too
What neatly organized photos of factory work don’t show are the reasons behind all the hard work. Sujeet Tigga, a young 27-year-old Indian man, once dreamed of becoming a priest. He was walking toward his goal when his father got terribly ill and could no longer continue his role as the breadwinner of the family. Tigga let go of his dream. The young man crossed 1,300 kilometres to Chennai, joined the industrial life, and shouldered his family responsibilities.
Was Tigga willing to take care of his family? He certainly was. There is nothing braver than leaving behind all that is familiar to you and taking risks, bearing hardship for the sake of your loved ones. Did he voluntarily work in a component manufacturer with long, dangerous work hours and no time for himself at all? Hard to tell.
Tigga’s home region of Odisha suffers from a lack of job opportunities. This leads young people to migrate South in search of better lives. Better lives here include working under exploitative conditions. The young man did get to choose, but from a limited number of hopeless choices. How voluntary is that?
Workers Have Families Too
While some work hard to provide for their families back home, others work hard to build their current ones. Huong Ly, a 32-year-old Vietnamese woman working at a textile company, was living with her 8-year-old son. Her husband, who worked in construction, could only visit once every two months due to constant travelling for work. Families living apart are common among migrant factory workers.
Some, before moving to the city to look for factory jobs, leave their kids in the care of their grandparents. Migrant workers in China and Vietnam, when interviewed, said that they regretted being absent from their children’s childhoods. The report also mentioned that the kids felt emotionally abandoned and did not perform well at school. Even in cases where children live with their parents, the long hours of industrial life keep parents from being fully present in their children’s lives.
It Doesn’t Have to be This Way
Recognizing the stories behind cheap labour does not mean disregarding the tough job markets in other nations. Outsourcing labour does take away jobs from working-class citizens in developed countries. In fact, outsourced labour in developing countries has evolved from mere cheap labour to highly skilled manufacturing work.
For example, as an attempt to bring jobs back to the U.S., Louis Vuitton opened a factory in Texas. However, it struggled to find employees who were as skilled with leather work as their Chinese factory hires. The competition has undergone gradual changes over time. Reverting to the way things were before globalization is not a viable option.
It remains an issue that citizens with limited education in Europe and North America lack manufacturing jobs due to global outsourcing. Fewer well-paying jobs for Americans worsen the country’s income inequality. At the same time, multinational companies that have outsourced promise economic growth to developing nations. Yet, they often fail to fulfill these promises and continue to exploit the local population. At the end of the day, people are not at fault, but rather big multinational corporations whose primary purpose is to meet quarterly reports with impressive numbers.
Private economy, however, remains an important part of our society. Flaws can be an opportunity for potential improvement rather than a reason for abolition. A UN-backed program operating across seven developing countries has found that improved working conditions can promote profitability for corporations. A shift in focus from profit-driven to human-centred approaches can do wonders for citizens across the globe and multinational corporations.
The answer is not to promote independence and/or withdraw from the global supply chain, but to promote just and human-centered cooperation. This does not come at the cost of profitability as human well-being is the goal, the force, and the inspiration.
Edited by Tony Hablak
