CNBC interview on Chinese workers taking an American boss hostage

I joined a discussion panel on CNBC's Closing Bell on June 26 to talk about Chinese workers near Beijing taking an American boss hostage out of fear for losing their jobs. The discussion can be viewed below.

Interview on Voice of Russia on American boss taken hostage in China

 I was recently interviewed by the Voice of Russia on the incident near Beijing, China in which workers took an American factory boss hostage out of fear of losing their jobs. The interview can be listened to here.

CNBC interview on deadly fire in Chinese poultry factory

CNBC interviewed me to talk about the deaths of more than 100 workers during a fire at a poultry factory in Jilin Province, China. The video can be viewed below.

Wages Rising in Chinese Factories? Only For Some

This article and photo originally appeared In These Times. The article was published together with Xue Chao, a Chinese labor rights activist.

If we are to take recent news reports at face value, the collective conscience of the world's consumers can be eased, because conditions at Chinese factories are improving.

Last year, The New York Times told us that these workers are “cheap no more,” and just this February, the Heritage Foundation, touting the virtues of global free trade, claimed that Chinese factory wages have risen 20 percent per year since 2005. Foxconn, Apple's major supplier and the manufacturer of approximately 40 percent of the world's consumer electronics, says it will hold free union elections every five years.

But Pollyannas should take pause: The average migrant worker's $320 monthly salary in 2011 was actually 43 percent less than the $560 national average, according to government statistics. And though it's true that Foxconn will permit the election of union leaders, we have yet to see how much China's so-called democratic unions can empower the workers they purport to represent.

Why finding work in China’s rural interior is empowering migrant workers

This article and photo originally appeared in the Global Post.

NEW YORK — For three decades, the blazing growth of China's coastal manufacturing regions has been fueled by a seemingly endless stream of workers migrating from China's poorer, rural interior.

Endless until now, that is. According to official Chinese statistics, this movement is reversing. The number of migrant workers finding employment in their home provinces is up 3.2 percent. With 252 million migrant workers, that equates to 7.6 million people staying in their home regions.

Washington Post interview on SNL skit on Chinese workers

In response to a Saturday Night Live skit involving Foxconn workers in China, the Washington Post interviewed me about my thoughts on the skit. Article here.

The video of the skit is here:

NPR discussion of the state of China's labor movement

I was invited onto an NPR station in California to chat about the current state of labor rights and the worker movement in China. You can listen to the program here.