Importing Jobs, Not Freedom Importing Jobs, Not Freedom
Movie Review of 'A Decent Factory'
Volume four, Issue 25 | June 30 -
July 6,
2004FilmA
DECENT FACTORYDirected by Thomas
BalmesIn Chinese and Finnish with
English subtitlesMargot
Films/BBCOpens Jun. 29, Film
ForumImporting Jobs, Not
FreedomDocumentary
eyes Nokia grappling with ethics at its Chinese
factoriesWorkers
on the production line at a factory in China that supplies parts to the Nokia
Corporation, as seen in Thomas
Balmes’ “A Decent Factory,” now at Film
Forum.By SETH J.
BOOKEYIs it possible to take advantage
of cheaper Third-World labor without taking advantage of the laborers
themselves?This predicament is the crux
of the new documentary "A Decent Factory," which follows the process of Nokia's
ethics committee looking into conditions at the factories that supply the
world's largest cell phone manufacturer with parts. Nokia employs thousands of
young Chinese women in a variety of factories, and this film documents company
meetings in Finland and a visit to one of these
factories.Despite China's sketchy human
rights record, the world's most populous nation has been able to attract massive
amounts of capital with cheap labor. Beijing has won the bid for the 2008
Olympics, turning much of the city into one big construction site, luring even
more workers to the exploding capital. China generally has experienced rapid
urbanization, leaving the countryside devoid of young, strong workers, who
instead flock to cities in the hopes of a brighter
future.When we think about China's human
rights abuses, the crack down on Fulan Gong and students in Tiananmen Square and
the annexation of Tibet are usually the first things to come to mind. But on an
everyday level, the average Chinese worker also suffers a variety of abuses, on
the job in China and even when they are successful in their effort to leave the
country, sometimes ending up as virtual slaves
overseas."A Decent Factory" brings two
very different cultures together, as the ethics committee members, largely
Finnish and British, make their way to the Asian workplace, where the vast
majority of workers are young women, often only 16. While the factory looks
fairly clean, we soon learn of various abuses. Toxins are kept next to the
drinking water the women use for tea; a manager has it moved to the kitchen
after the cameras start rolling. Many factories, like the one we are shown, have
dormitories for the women, who live eight to a room. Managers are four to a
room. Everyone seems to endure appalling showers that are virtually
outdoors.Everything is geared toward
productivity. A manager tells us that boys are not allowed to go up to the
girls' rooms, and that any girl who gets pregnant is sent back home. A British
factory manager explains that he at times agrees to obtain contraceptives so
girls could avoid this fate. The young girls have left home seeking a better
life, but in the factory setting they are treated as virtual chattel. After one
set of interviews, the ethics committee has to argue with a manager that the
workers they met should be given extra time for lunch—they were expected
to eat while being interviewed and now "the food's all
gone."There is still plenty of work in
the Chinese countryside, but much of it is not paid work, but instead simply
required of young people who choose to stay on with their
families.Films made in China and those
made elsewhere about the emerging economic giant have charted the effects of
increased capital investment there and the resulting alienation migrants
experience in the big cities. In "Ermo," a rural woman turns getting a bigger TV
into her reason for living. In "Lan Yu" and "Suxhou River," and currently, in
"The World," feature films have captured the challenges new urban dwellers face.
Documentaries have shown the bare-bones existence most urban migrants have. Yet,
in important ways, the situation must be viewed as relative—on some level,
the workers are happy to be on their own, free of family constraints and making
more money than they could back home. But by Western standards, being kept in
barbed-wire encircled compounds and forced to sleep eight to a room and to ask
permission for contraception is
appalling.It’s a good bet that
Nokia would not be investigating factory conditions if it didn't feel some need
to satisfy the growing demands of the ethically-minded investment groups who
have become players in the institutional financial
markets."A Decent Factory" is a nice
companion piece to "Mardi Gras," which screened at the Human Rights Watch Film
Festival recently, and chronicled the conditions of Chinese workers who
manufacture the beads ubiquitous in the New Orleans Fat Tuesday celebrations.
"Factory" chronicles the enormous work condition disparities between East and
West, but by focusing its narrative through a series of corporate meetings, the
human dimensions of these issues become muted. "Mardi Gras" skillfully
contrasted the lives of the workers with the frivolity of the end users in New
Orleans, "A Decent Factory" is edited with considerably less imagination.
Documentaries are certainly capable of
being entertaining as well as informative. Director Thomas Balmes might pay
closer attention to this potential in his next outing.
Posted: Thu - June 30, 2005 at 10:29 PM
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Published On: Jun 20, 2009 07:03 PM
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