Factory.

I wasn't really comfortable going to see the factory on Saturday. As I walked around looking at the workers doing their job, it made me feels like I'm going to the zoo. At Hanoismex, the workers seems to have more benefits working there comparing to Yamaha, which to me seems like a bigger company. Most workers are from the provinces that are looking for jobs in the city to make the extra living to send back money back home. At Hanoismex, workers also have a place to stay and an on-site hospital next to their dormitory. I found it surprising since the services the company offers to the workers are quite decent. One thing that struck me is when I found out that workers at Hanoismex earn 200 dollars a month, while at Yamaha, it's only 100 dollars. As a foreign company, I thought the pay would be somewhat decent if not more, but it was half of what a Vietnamese company is willing to pay their workers. Most of the workers there are between 20-30 years of age. It seems that most of them leave after couple of years working at the factory. This can also mean, they are using the factory work to integrate themselves into the city life and once they can find the opportunity, they can go out and do their own things. This relates to the article from the lecture in which working at factory allows these workers from the less modern area an opportunity to become a part of the city. Working at factory is not something that they might think of doing for the rest of their life. At Hanoismex, they said they are always running low on workers since the demand for this job is not high. That was something different than what the article mentioned before. Some company take advantage of the workers because they know there are more people out there needing a job if anyone rebellious quit. So it was interesting to hear that the company is the one that needed the workers.

As for Yamaha, even though they are bigger and more modern but they have no services for the workers. There's no medical clinic nor dormitory for workers to stay if they are from far provinces. Therefore, lots of their workers said to be recruited from the nearby city. Supposed these two factories are the good/better ones from others. They respect the labor laws and give fair wages. However, after the tour, the factory is not all that a good working place. Wages are still quite low and people still have to pay for a lot of things moving and living in the city out of their own pocket. With the amount of money they make is not a lot for a comfortable living. I can imagine how the worse factory place will be like. Even though foreign company might have provided more jobs to third world country, but instead of making their life better, the workers are being exploit and have to deal with labor rights being violate. However, government control sometime cannot go full force at punishing companies like this afraid they will scare away foreign investment into the country economy. Development gives people many opportunity but it also strip others at certain things.