US businessman: China workers are holding me hostage in my own factory

US businessman: China workers are holding me hostage in my own factory

An American businessman in China has said that workers at his own factory are holding him hostage in a dispute over money.
Medical supply magnate Chip Starnes said his employees have refused to let him leave since Friday because of a spat over severance pay. He said that large groups of staff follow him around the site in a remote Beijing suburb, blocking all the exits if he tries to escape.
“I have been here a long time,” the 42-year-old said in an interview from inside the factory. “I am not being physically abused or anything like that. The first couple of days were very tough. There was more mental stuff going on." "I need to go back to my hotel. I need to take a shower. I need to change my clothes. I need to do some necessary things to come back professionally and work this out," he added.
Starnes said that the local Chinese authorities had done little to help him and the workers had the backing of local unions.

Sounds like the wage slaves are getting upset. The workers aren't as stupid as what he thinks. The way it usually happens is first just a little bit of the work is moved to another country then the next thing you know the factory is closing just ask any of the millions here in the states that have lost their jobs to outsourcing.

reply to post by buster2010


Well umma side on the workers especially after this happened

According to a new press release by China Labor Watch, another Foxconn employee from their Zhengzhou factory where Apple's iPhone is assembled jumped off a building to his death last Tuesday. The news that was officially made public hours ago stated that this was the third employee from the same factory to have fatally jumped off of buildings in the span of the last 20 days. The reasons for these suicides are yet unclear. Some estimate them to be related to the new "silence mode" policy at Zhengzhou in which workers are purportedly threatened with termination if they talk on the job.

www.patentlyapple.com...

reply to post by buster2010


"LET THEM EAT CAKE!"

Oops wrong country and time in history.

China, or more specifically, the Chinese workers have begun to realize their great value to the global economy. The country is well on its way to increasing minimum standards.....relatively speaking.

Edit to add:

“What do you mean holding him hostage? … Our representatives said already that they are all female employees so how can they hold a well-built man hostage? You must be joking,” he said.

Also this:

"I need to go back to my hotel. I need to take a shower. I need to change my clothes. I need to do some necessary things to come back professionally and work this out," he added.

The disconnect between this man and his employee's is quite funny.

Why would a company owner ever go to china to get trapped in the first place.

This is what you hire managers and others to do while you set safe someplace else.

Originally posted by ANNED
Why would a company owner ever go to china to get trapped in the first place.

This is what you hire managers and others to do while you set safe someplace else.

The relatively naive tone of your post aside. Some owners/managers from the West travel to their Chinese based factories semi-regularly for several reasons.

Some include (but not limited to) the following:
-When conducting business internationally some End-users requiring the manufacturing facilities to be inspected for quality assurance. In this instance, it is not uncommon for the owner/upper level manager from going to the factory to ensure quality standards are or appear to be adhered to during the inspection. Plus you do not exactly want a valuable client walking unescorted around your facility, especially with all the stigma's attached to Chinese manufacturing.

-Any successful business owner will tell you that production oversight is key to success. I presume this also could have been an annual visit to ensure things were going according to his design and that no problems were occurring.

Just seems this situation is stemming from poor employee sanctification and they have revolted during one of his visits to demand change. Good on em.

I believe the workers are claiming that he owes them 2 months back pay, this is the main reason why they decided to somewhat rebel and tear his office apart, I say, if you want to be offshore and avoid taxes and profit from cheap labor, and keep more profits then you should prepare for the consequences if you are perceived as taking advantage of or even appearing to the locals as being an outsider , ripping them off and slighting them on pay you will most certainly be dealt with more harsher than one of their own possibly.

Not sure how he might be viewed in China or the legalities, but I know its not like here, they hand out death sentences and life imprisonments for these types of things if they are serious enough and any corruption is found to be involved.

reply to post by ANNED


I agree with you, it seems that either the man's business is a low key and that is why he can not pay for representatives of his company to do the dirty work for him.

His is not in the top fortune 500 that is for sure.

This guy deserves what he is getting, in my view... These people running these companies usually don't have any problem running roughshod over workers and others, as long as it helps the company financially, or whatever, then they do it without remorse.. People have become so used to this business model, no one even usually resists it much.

This is proven by just the fact that they move the entire factory overseas, terminating thousands of workers here, which destroys families and other collateral damage, then hiring dirt cheap labor overseas, and even bypassing many other laws like environmental, and EPA restrictions on pollution and whatever else, like labor laws, and then finally shipping these products back to the USA, and Canada, and selling them to the same people they already screwed over!

Most of these CEO's that run these large corporations also attend Bilderberg meetings, and support other global agendas, which to me, shows that they are all bought and paid for in more ways than people realize.

I bet if people knew the whole story behind the way these companies are run, and how they are manipulated and controlled by government interests, and especially how they hold their own customers and fellow human beings with the high degree of contempt that they do, you would see people turning vigilante real fast and maybe even see some lynchings.. One can only dream...

Originally posted by marg6043
reply to post by ANNED

 

I agree with you, it seems that either the men's business is a low key and that is why he can not pay for representatives of his company to do the dirty work for him.

His is not in the top fortune 500 that is for sure.

edit on 25-6-2013 by marg6043 because: (no reason given)

Am i to get this right, you think visiting his Chinese manufacturing facility is "dirty work"? I do not think the workers there would agree that a western businessmen having to trouble himself with a visit their plant would be considered that.

I really cant tell if you and ANNED comments are just simply levity based on a relatively silly situation or a real disregard for the conditions and practices conducted in the east...

reply to post by buster2010


Nice!! I hope they burn him at the stake....

SOB should of kept his company in America...

So, let the traitor hAng out to dry....not a tear in the place for this poor owner?
Tll him to take a TS slip and sit down and wait........

Yea, I bet he would return and work things out after he got back to his home I bet he would be on the first flight out of town and close the factory just to get back at the people and prove authority of his kind.

I heard that this whole dispute is possibly settled now, he worked out a deal with workers and they let him leave the factory.

What is especially funny to me is why they were holding him hostage: The article states the current employees wanted the severance package the laid off employees received. I guess they didn't understand the concept of a severance package.

And even though the reason for the 'revolt' was a bit misguided, I don't have a lot of sympathy for the man. When you take your dealings offshore, you're in a whole other culture and legal system. He kind of played with fire there and got burnt.