The Only Chinese Workers Left In Adidas Suzhou Factory

In another three months, there will be a gradual silence here, accompanied by the unemployment of some workers.

Adidas recently said that it will dismiss the workers of Adidas factory in Suzhou in batches from October 31 this year to July 31 next year until the factory is closed. It is reported that the factory may move to Southeast Asian countries with lower labor costs.

"What can I do when I go out like this? It's just to be an aunt at someone else's house and do housework!" said Aunt Zhang. Aunt Zhang, a native of Suzhou, is a female workshop worker of adidas Suzhou Factory and the last batch of adidas workers in China.

As a "cheap labor force" with no other skills, she has entered the tide of international industrial transfer in the textile and clothing industry. Now, as the tide turns to countries with lower costs, she will lose her job.

Adidas said that this workshop is where Adidas (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. is located. It was solely registered in Suzhou Industrial Park at the end of 1997 and mainly produces sports of Adidas and its brands clothing It has nearly 200 employees and is currently the only Adidas factory in China. A reporter from China Business News found that most of the employees in the factory were women over 35 years old.

In the field of textile and clothing industry, the rising labor cost is gradually weakening the advantage of Chinese manufacturing, while Bangladesh and other Southeast Asian countries have gradually attracted the industrial transfer of textile and clothing industry with lower labor costs. As early as three years ago, Nike closed its only shoe manufacturing factory in China, Taicang Factory.

Aunt Zhang entered the factory in 2003. Adidas has two types of workers: outsourced workers and regular workers. At that time, the monthly basic salary of outsourced workers was 700 yuan. By 2012, the monthly basic salary of outsourced workers had risen to 1800 yuan. In 2003, the monthly basic salary of regular workers was about 1000 yuan, and by 2012, the basic salary was 2000 yuan. At present, most of the people in the factory are regular workers, and only a few are outsourced workers.

A regular employee who entered the factory in 2010 told our reporter that the monthly basic salary at that time was more than 1000 yuan. By 2012, it had risen to about 2100 yuan, and the maximum monthly salary could be 3500 yuan.

Zhong Shan, Vice Minister of Commerce of China, said earlier that the average monthly wage of Vietnam's manufacturing industry is about 1000 yuan (equivalent to RMB, the same below), India is about 600 yuan, and China's eastern coast is about 2500 yuan to 3000 yuan. China's labor costs have been significantly higher than those of neighboring countries.

Miss Li, who works for a famous British clothing company, once told our reporter that, taking her company as an example, before 2012, 70% of the production will be in China, and since 2012, only 30% will be in China.

Miss Li said that, due to the advantage of backwardness, the garment production equipment in Bangladesh is generally advanced, and the factory scale is huge. The wage of workers is only about one tenth of that in China. Garment processing enterprises have huge advantages over Chinese enterprises.

Adidas is only one of the major forces of industrial transfer. Clothing factories in Southeast Asian countries are rising. At present, clothing orders are flowing to Bangladesh, and Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, India and other countries have also diverted a small part.

According to the data released by Nike in recent years, in 2001, China produced 40% of Nike shoes, ranking first in the world, while Vietnam only accounted for 13%; But in 2010, Vietnam's share rose to 37%, surpassing China's 34%.

Osman, chairman of the Bangladesh Knitwear Production and Export Association (BKMEA), said in October 2011 that Bangladesh has now surpassed India to become the world's second largest exporter of knitwear after China.

Adidas Suzhou Factory is still busy now, but in the near future, it will bid farewell to China. As described in the famous "geese shaped development model" in international economics, the current ebb and flow of industry flows like water to low-cost areas, from developed countries to developing countries, and then to countries with more comparative advantages in labor and manufacturing costs.

When our reporter asked where they would go if the factory really evacuated from the park, the security guard of Adidas Suzhou factory hesitated and finally said: "The company has made good arrangements

As for the compensation plan for workers after the factory is dissolved, Aunt Zhang said: "The factory has n+1 compensation for workers, where n refers to the year of working in the factory, and workers can get n+1 months of salary subsidies after leaving the factory. This is only compensation for regular employees, and there is no compensation for outsourced workers."