The Slaves are revolting in China – could this be the end of the glut of ultra cheap ‘Made in China’ crap?

A Huffington Post / AP story is recounting the story from Shanghai China that factory workers are demanding better wages and better working conditions and are having the audacity to go on strike for them!

In the last few months there have been strikes and it appears that companies who count of the insanely cheap labor in China are getting worried about the massive profits they are making. (now, not every company makes “massive” profits but when I see drapes that were made in china for $60.00 I can’t help but think they paid about $4.00 for them. That’s massive to me.)

One of the major events that seems to be compelling companies to reconsider their operations there is Beijing’s move to stop tethering the Chinese currency to the U.S. Dollar allowing it to appreciate and naturally grow boosting costs and for some killing their micro profit margins manufacturing in China allow them.

One interesting part of this story is that they mention a Daily Show report on how Hula-Hoop, Frisbee and Slip ‘N Slide maker Wham-O has pulled their manufacturing from China for those items and are now making them in the United States. Wow, that makes me actually want to go out and buy a real Frisbee (but I’ll still check to see where the one on the shelf was made).

They specifically mention publishers looking at the bottom line pricing of printing in China and that Life Sciences companies are returning to their country of origin too.

Does this mean all the jobs lost to cheap Chinese labor are coming back to where they left from? Probably not for most.

Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia will likely see a boom time soon. Also the Chinese government has more boondock areas and citizens of the country they could exploit and just simply move a little further out to avoid picky people who have the nerve want a decent wage and a workplace that won’t kill them before their time.

Numerous people have commented to me that they wonder what the gang at WalMart thinks about this. I wonder that too.