One sixth of migrant workers in Hainan earn less than 500 yuan a month, far below the legal minimum wage in the province, according to a survey by the province’s trade union federation. The majority (55 percent) of the 350 workers surveyed by the union earned between 500 yuan and 1,000 yuan a month. Only five percent could earn more than 2,000 yuan a month. Not surprisingly, 90 percent of the respondents said they were not satisfied with their current level of income.

Sitting at a sidewalk coffee shop a block from the White House, Andy Stern, former president of the Service Employees International Union, is reflecting on a series of visits he's made since 2002 to China, where he has discussed organizing and collective bargaining with leaders of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU). China's economic transformation is a profound challenge to the United States, and to American workers in particular, Stern says. "We have to recognize that China is the first real economic competitor that has ever threatened America's standing as the global economic superpower."

On a crushingly hot mid-August day at Foxconn Technology Group’s Longhua factory campus in Shenzhen -- where a dutiful army of 300,000 employees eats, sleeps, and churns out iPhones, Sony Corp. PlayStations, and Dell Inc. computers -- workers indulged in a rare moment of celebration.

A four day strike at the Japanese-owned Brother Industries plant in Shenzhen ended at the weekend after management offered a 100 yuan increase in the basic monthly wage and other benefits, and crucially agreed to slow down the factory’s production line and reduce employee workloads.