Where Did Adidas' Last Chinese Worker Go?

Suzhou Industrial Park, 5 Xinghan Street. In the hot summer, this old factory area is a bit quiet. Adidas's factory building here has a history of about 15 years. The old, dark-green elevator goes straight to the production workshop on the third floor. The machine roars and workers can be seen busy in the door seams.

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

Adidas company said that from October 31 this year to July 31 next year, batches will dismiss workers from the Adidas factory in Suzhou until the factory is shut down. It is reported that the factory may be moved to Southeast Asia where the cost of labor is lower.

"What can I do to go out like me? It is nothing more than to go to someone's home to do aunts and do housework!" Zhang Aunt said. Auntie Zhang is a native of Suzhou, a factory worker at the adidas Suzhou factory and the last group of Adidas workers in China.

As a "cheap labor" with no other merit, she entered the tide of international industrial transfer in the textile and garment industry. Now that this trend has shifted to lower-cost countries, she will lose her job.

Adidas stated that this workshop is where Adidas (Suzhou) Co., Ltd. is located. It was incorporated in Suzhou Industrial Park by the end of 1997. It mainly produces adidas and its branded sportswear. It has nearly 200 employees and is currently the only company in Adidas in China. Own factory. The reporter of the "First Financial Daily" made a visual inspection when the workers came off work. Most of the factory's employees were women over 35 years of age.

In the textile and apparel industry, the rising labor costs are gradually reducing the advantages of Chinese manufacturing, while Bangladesh and other Southeast Asian countries have gradually attracted the textile and garment industry to transfer industries with lower labor costs. As early as three years ago, Nike closed its Taicang factory, the only footwear production factory in China.

Auntie Zhang is a factory that entered in 2003. Adidas's workers are outsourced workers and regular workers. At that time, the basic salary for outsourcing workers was 700 yuan. By 2012, the basic salary for outsourcing workers rose to 1,800 yuan. In 2003, the basic salary for regular workers was around 1,000 yuan. By 2012, the basic salary was 2,000 yuan. At present, most of the people in the factory are regular workers and there are only a few outsourcers.

A formal employee who entered the factory in 2010 told this reporter that the basic monthly salary at that time was more than 1,000 yuan. By 2012, it had risen to about 2,100 yuan. At most one month, it could get 3,500 yuan.

Zhong Shan, the deputy minister of the Ministry of Commerce of the People's Republic of China, previously stated that the average wage in Vietnam's manufacturing industry is about 1,000 yuan per month (RMB, the same below), India is about 600 yuan, and the eastern coast of China is about 2500 yuan to 3,000 yuan, China The labor costs have been greatly higher than in neighboring countries.

Miss Li, who works for a well-known British clothing company, told this reporter that taking her company as an example, before 2012, 70% of production will be placed in China. From 2012, only 30% will be placed in China.

Ms. Li said that because of the advantage of backwardness, garment production equipment in Bangladesh is generally more advanced and the factory scale is huge. The wages of workers are only about one-tenth that of China. Garment processing companies have great advantages over Chinese enterprises.

Adidas is just one of the army of industry transfer. Southeast Asian garment factories are rising. At the moment, clothing orders are flowing to Bangladesh, and Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, India and other countries have also diverted a small portion.

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

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

Adidas Suzhou factory is still busy now, but in the near future, it will bid farewell to China. The current scene is ebb and flow, as the well-known “wild goose development model” in international economics describes, industry flows like water to low-cost areas, from developed countries to developing countries, and then to more labor and Countries with manufacturing cost comparative advantages.

When the reporter asked if the factory was to leave the park and where they would go, the security guard at Adidas Suzhou factory said: "The company has arranged well and is relatively proper."

Regarding the compensation plan for the workers after the dissolution of the factory, Zhang Axuan said: “The factory has n+1 compensation for workers, where n refers to the year of work in the factory, and workers can receive n+1 months of wage subsidies after leaving the factory. This is only compensation for formal employees. Outsourcers do not have any compensation."