Not long after Netflix released this documentary, it was on the hot search. Against the background of the Sino-US trade war, this documentary injects a meaningful touch into this current hot topic of world politics and economy.
This documentary tells the story of a factory in Ohio, USA, which has been closed for many years. It was bought by billionaire Cao Dewang from China and then restarted. This brought a series of interactions between Chinese and American employees, companies and communities within the factory. A story of constant conflict. This can be seen as a cultural clash, but it is also a clash of civilizations at the same time.
In the beginning, the workers who had regained their jobs were looking forward to the restart of the factory, which meant they could get jobs. In the beginning, the Chinese and American employees approached each other with curiosity and friendliness. They used half-baked English to communicate with each other, learned English through gestures, and went fishing together. But over time, the workers discovered that the operation and working methods of this factory were very different from their original expectations. So the Chinese and American employees began to react differently.
Overtime work, few vacations, poor factory environment, intensive production lines, lack of safety protection measures, etc. These problems are gradually exposed. An American worker said that he could earn 29 US dollars per hour, but now he can only earn 13 US dollars per hour. Hour. The workers became disappointed, and then they began to demand the establishment of a trade union. With regard to the establishment of a trade union, the boss Cao Dewang's side as a capitalist is thoroughly revealed. He put pressure on the management to stop the establishment of unions, otherwise he would close the factory. He sent U.S. personnel to visit factories in the mainland. The Americans saw the Chinese squatting in the glass slag to sort and dispose of trash without any protective measures, and learned that they are open all year round except for the Spring Festival. When there is no rest day, I was stunned.
What the boss wants them to see is "what is efficiency", but they see the inhuman side, how the individual is left in a state of ignorance in the face of efficiency. The US management said that, let alone there are no rest days, American workers will be very unhappy if they only take two days off a month.
Many years ago, Samuel Huntington pointed out in his book "The Clash of Civilizations and the Reconstruction of World Order" that the clash of civilizations will be a common problem that all humans on this earth will face in the future. In the beginning, globalization allowed people from different nations, races and countries to enjoy the abundance and convenience of material growth, and when it reached the stage of highly intertwined, the conflict between culture and civilization began to become prominent. Differences and conflicts in religion, ethnicity, race, etc., all have great deviations and incompatibility in the identity of the value system.
At the beginning of the film, the Chinese management is telling the Chinese personnel who have crossed the ocean to arrive at the American factory and are about to start working. In the United States, you can release yourself, even if you play a joke on the President of the United States, there will be no consequences. In an interview with CNN, the two directors of the documentary said that they found this segment very interesting because they saw very obvious surprised expressions on the faces of Chinese employees.
Both the director and the CNN anchor expressed interest in this, and I think this matter itself has become very interesting. What it shows is that Americans may not realize that this (comment on American presidents and even politics) would be a very special thing, but it has become a special thing in the eyes of the Chinese. I think the hidden information behind this is full of flavors for us in China, especially in a time when the climate is becoming increasingly tense. In ancient times, we could not make arrogant discussions about state affairs, and we are the same.
In another place, a Chinese supervisor showed a photo from his mobile phone to the shooting team. It was a photo of him and an American worker. He said: Looking at my buddy, he has a good relationship with me, but I have an eyeliner to tell me that he is one of the leaders in the fight for the establishment of a trade union. Don't look at me being so good with him, I will let him disappear after two weeks.
It is a little disturbing here. It seems to see the historical smoke and dust of the whistleblower and secretly constructed during the Wen Revolution.
There is a section in the film where a Chinese middle-level manager rudely stated during a meeting that these American workers should be forced to work overtime and their rest days should be cancelled. When expressing his views, he spoke fast, several "fuck". In his opinion, it is simply unreasonable for employees not to work overtime. I believe he has to work overtime too, but he will be happy. They are all part-time workers, but he has internalized this kind of factory culture into his mind.
In the other paragraph, the Chinese management staff is beating the Chinese employees, saying that he is often considered to be only in his forties. In fact, he is in his fifties and he has served the Fuyao factory for decades. Why do you look so young? Because "I have passion"!
I just don't know how many such employees over 40 years old are in this factory and other factories in mainland China, and how many have been optimized. Will those older employees who no longer appear in the factory still have a passion?
The American managers were dismissed. The hourly wage of all workers is increased by $2. But the faces of American workers did not show much joy, their expressions were meaningful.
What's interesting is that when conflicts arise between the company and its employees, capital and workers, the Chinese employees and the company, which should have been on the opposite side of their interests, are on the side of the company.
I think one of the reasons for this is because the Chinese employees are all abroad and have always been subject to this kind of factory culture. Even if some people think that more wages and more rest time are good, they can only be deeply hidden. In my heart, it is impossible to stand up, especially to stand with American workers, to protest together and promote the establishment of labor unions together;
Another reason is that there are probably many workers who accept and approve of working overtime in their hearts, which means they can get more wages. This is not only a factory in the United States, but a factory in mainland China, not just Fuyao, and many mainland factories may have this problem.
For most people who work in factories, their background is poor and education is lacking. They can get job opportunities and have overtime pay. Even if it is not much, that is good, otherwise the time is playing games and sleeping. , Drinking and so on.
Someone said on the Internet that this is a victory for Chinese civilization, indicating that China has become stronger and that Chinese culture has had an impact on American culture and even world civilization. When I saw such comments, I felt dumbfounded. There may be shocks, or even jaw-dropping, but this is not a smart work system.
For the emerging class with a certain degree of education, most of today’s middle class may just feel a little sympathetic when they saw young Foxconn employees jumping off the building to fight against the factory culture system and robotic life many years ago, but they felt that it was. Things in the other world are still far away. But after these years have passed, look at yourself. It is not uncommon to find yourself in the 996 work system, 35 years old and above being optimized, etc. It is actually just a new level of Foxconn employee life, lighting and boiling oil to boil one’s hair. It was bald, and it was optimized before it had time to relax. Of course, there are objective reasons why enterprises pursue the ultimate pursuit of efficiency in order to survive and develop, but it also reveals that in the process of mutual leverage between capital and labor, capital is crushing, and it has never really tried to compete with labor. Reconciliation and symbiosis.
At the end of the documentary, the workers returned to their jobs after singing and dancing, but they didn’t know that although they had just received an hourly salary increase of $2 (it was far lower than the time when the American workers did not close the GM factory). Salary), but soon they will be replaced by automation. When the management led the boss Cao Dewang to inspect the production line, they kept emphasizing that “each production line can reduce 2 workers” and “the cost is greatly reduced”.
When you are endlessly grateful for your boss's salary increase, and you have almost cultivated the sense of unity and pride that the factory is your home and your home is the factory, your boss won't hesitate to wave and lay off employees. I don't know how those "supporters" who initially defended the interests of the employers and were hostile to American employees' fight for workers' rights will feel when they are laid off.
Some people may say that if the boss does not lay off employees, and the boss does not pursue efficiency and profit, then everyone will have no food to eat, and they will have to split up. This is not wrong at all. The reality is that under the logical guidance presented in this sentence, more and more companies are becoming more and more aggressive, only looking at profit and efficiency. Therefore, some people have food and some people have food. If the company is optimized and has no food to eat, and when the company is approaching a certain stage, there will be a group of people who initially followed the food to be optimized and become no food.
Here, it's really not a victory of Chinese culture, let alone a gratifying battle of civilization. Just imagine, when people live less and less like people, what civilization is there to speak of?
Original: Ms Lai wonderful love it bad life
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