[psykotic]

I recently finished Peter Hessler's book Country Driving (all of his three China books are excellent, by the way). Workers wanting more OT (and more guaranteed hours in general) is a common refrain in the third of the book which deals with the emerging factory towns in Wenzhou province. Working at the smaller factories entails unsteady, unpredictable hours. Another major concern for workers is not working under too dangerous conditions, represented in the book by fake leather factories, which use chemicals with foul, dangerous fumes in their manufacturing process. Taking everything into account, I imagine a place like Foxconn must look attractive compared to most of the ready alternatives.