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COPYRIGHT 2005 The Dallas Morning News
Byline: Jim Landers
Mar. 29--SHENZHEN, China -- Women workers are beginning to assert their rights and demand higher wages and better benefits in this city infamous for its sweatshops.
"I enjoy my life here. It's better than it would be at home," said Liu Qin, an 18-year-old from a farm village who makes reflecting tape for road signs in a Shenzhen factory."If I get tired of this job, I'll get another one," she said over the blare of a dance tune in a Shenzhen disco.
The prospect of employment mobility speaks volumes about the changes under way in China, at the far end of a consumer-goods chain that eventually reaches to U.S. stores such as Wal-Mart, Kmart and Target.
Wages remain far below U.S. levels, of course, so labor-intensive items such as coats, shoes and toys -- and caps emblazoned with a NASCAR or longhorn logo -- are still made here for far less than in the United States.
But a combination of forces, from a better rural economy in China to...
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