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Christmas has fallen, and the supply chain crisis in Europe and the United States has become prominent. Factories in Vietnam, an important part of the global supply chain, still lack workers due to the new crown epidemic. Faced with such a dilemma, American retailers have turned to China.

u3000u3000 The New York Times recorded the story of a female Vietnamese worker named Thu Trang (Thu Trang, transliteration) on November 13. She used to work for processing factories of European and American clothing brands, but decided to go home after experiencing various obstacles caused by Vietnam's epidemic prevention restrictions. Nowadays, factories are offering favorable conditions such as wage increases to encourage rework. However, many workers like Qiu Zhuang in Vietnam choose to stay at home because of their physical and mental health.

u3000u3000 "Even if the company doubles or triples our salary, I insist on going home." Qiuzhuang said

The story of u3000u3000 Qiuzhuang began in 2019. At that time, from Tra Vinh province in southern Vietnam, she was delighted to find a job in a garment processing factory in Ho Chi Minh City. She worked 8 hours a day in shifts, making sports shoes for European and American brands such as New Balance, Converse and Adidas, and worked overtime. Fees, income is almost three times that of her when she was a farmer.

u3000u3000 With the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, life in Qiuzhuang has fallen into difficulties. In 2020, Vietnam has achieved outstanding results in epidemic prevention, and has been hailed as a "model student in epidemic prevention" by many Western media, and its economy has also achieved growth. But this year, with the delta virus epidemic, the number of confirmed cases and the number of deaths in Vietnam has continued to rise.

u3000u3000 Entering July, Vietnam’s daily increase suddenly rose from three digits to four digits, and reached its highest peak in August, with more than 17,000 cases per day. It was at this time that the Vietnamese government began to implement epidemic control measures, and the factory became one of the front lines of epidemic prevention.

u3000u3000 The government requires factories to implement the so-called "three-site" measures. Food, life, and work need to be completed in the factory. The factory also responded to the call to provide tents and toilets for workers crowded in warehouses or parking lots.

u3000u3000The gathering of people has increased the difficulty of epidemic prevention, and there have been large-scale infections of hundreds of people in the machine processing plant. Some factories said they could not afford the cost of resettling workers, so they chose to stop production. Suddenly, hundreds of workers had no income.

u3000u3000 Qiuzhuang is also one of them. She and her colleagues lived in a small house with a lack of food. Most of them had to rely on rice and soy sauce to survive. For a few days, they even had no food to eat.

u3000u3000 Vietnam began to restrict the epidemic, but the supporting measures have not kept up. Another female worker named Doan Bich Tram (Doan Bich Tram) said that when the government imposed the new crown restrictions, she did not eat for a few days. In August and September, she received only about 2.94 million VND (about 828 yuan) in subsidies from the local government, which was not even enough to pay the rent. In addition, the factory did not give her any support.

u3000u3000 "My trust in the government has disappeared," she said. "They failed to effectively control the epidemic, and many people died of infection and lived in hunger."

u3000u3000 Entering September and October, the number of increasing cases in Vietnam has declined, the epidemic has been brought under control, and the government has relaxed restrictions on the epidemic. Many workers flocked back to their hometowns.

u3000u3000 Binh Duong Province, Ho Chi Minh City is known as Vietnam’s "economic locomotive" and is home to two of the largest industrial parks in Vietnam. But government data shows that from July to September, about 1.3 million migrant workers from these two regions returned to their hometowns.

u3000u3000 The Ho Chi Minh City official responsible for the prevention of new crown pneumonia said that in Ho Chi Minh City, the total number of workers in export processing zones and industrial parks is now approximately 135,000, a 46% drop from before the restrictions began.

u3000u3000 In the same period, global supply chain problems began to surface. Few people have experienced a situation where supermarkets are out of stock in the contemporary era of abundant production capacity. However, in countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States where the market economy is highly developed, the people's life has been difficult recently, and the empty shelves make people desperate. Especially as Christmas is approaching, consumers are facing the embarrassing situation of being rude to buy.

u3000u3000 According to statistics from CNN last month, about three-quarters of Nike's footwear products are produced in Southeast Asia. Among them, footwear produced in Vietnam accounted for 51% of the total, while footwear produced in Indonesia accounted for 24% of the total.

u3000u3000 The limited production and suspension of production at the Vietnam factory from July to September undoubtedly dealt a major blow to Nike. Financial services company BTIG analyst Camilo Lyon (Camilo Lyon) estimated that during this period, Nike's footwear production alone decreased by 180 million pairs, and the subsequent impact is still unknown. "No one knows how fast or slow the increase in production will be."

u3000u3000 Not only Nike, the supply of other fast-moving consumer goods and electronic products has also stalled due to the suspension of production in Vietnam.

u3000u3000 Vietnam plays a pivotal role in the global consumer economy. From Wal-Mart's furniture, Adidas' sports shoes, to Samsung's smartphones, Vietnam-made products cover various industries. According to the American Apparel and Footwear Association, Vietnam is the second largest supplier of American apparel and footwear, after China.

u3000u3000In order to solve this problem, the supply chain has changed the way to ask Vietnamese workers to return to the factory. Adam Sitkoff, executive director of the American Chamber of Commerce in Hanoi, said many companies are looking for workarounds and other remedies to help relieve stress.

u3000u3000 "American companies are thinking about what they can do," Sitkov said. "If we charter a bus and come to the workers' hometown, will this help us'rescue' people back?"

u3000u3000 American companies have asked the Vietnamese government to speed up the vaccine program, which they say is vital to workers’ sense of safety. Only 29% of the population is fully vaccinated, which is one of the lowest rates in Southeast Asia. Vietnam said it hopes to fully vaccinate 70% of the population by the end of this year. The American Apparel and Footwear Association has lobbied the Biden administration to donate more vaccines to the United States.

u3000u3000 The managers of the Vietnam factory also promised to give workers a raise. On October 22, the Ho Chi Minh City Government stated that it would provide free transportation and accommodation for the first month for workers willing to return to work. These measures have achieved some success. For example, 90% of the employees of the Vietnam Bao Yuan shoe factory have returned to Ho Chi Minh City.

u3000u3000 But some workers don’t seem to buy it.

u3000u3000 "Even if the company doubles or triples our wages, I insist on going home," Qiuzhuang said. "Ho Chi Minh City used to be our destination for the future, but it is no longer a safe place."

u3000u3000 Duan Bichen said: "During the pandemic, when we were most difficult, they abandoned us. Why are we staying now?"

u3000u3000 Nguyen Huyen Trang (transliteration), who works at the Nike processing plant, said that she has been vaccinated with two doses of the vaccine, but she is still worried about returning to the factory. In October, the manager called to ask her if she would return to work and promised to raise her salary. But her answer was categorical, "No."

Do Quynh Chi (transliteration), director of the Vietnam Employment Relations Research Center, said that of the 300 workers interviewed in the last week of September, 60% told her that they were aware of the lack of safety and security in the city and wanted to return. To my hometown.

u3000u3000 The New York Times analyzed that for consumers, the shortage of workers may exacerbate the delays in global manufactured goods. The global shipping crisis and months of suspension of production in Southeast Asian countries have caused delays in global manufactured goods. This may mean that FMCG, including Nike sneakers, will take longer to be shipped to European and American countries. For this reason, some American retailers have turned to Chinese suppliers to alleviate the crisis.

u3000u3000 According to HSBC data quoted by the Financial Times on October 16th, in September this year, in 10 countries including the United Kingdom and the United States, 60% of the interviewed companies said they are expanding or will expand their supply chains in China next year. 97% of companies said they plan to continue investing in China, and nearly one-fifth of companies plan to invest at least 25% of their operating profits in China.

u3000u3000 The annual "China Business Report" issued by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai also came to a similar result. Among American manufacturers in China, 72% have no plans to move production overseas within the next three years. Of the remaining 28% of companies, none of them moved production from China to the United States. Nearly 60% of respondents have increased their investment in China this year.

u3000u3000 The report believes that after the epidemic, the supply chain will undoubtedly change, and China may lose part of its business. However, China-centered globalization has become too mature, and it is so important in business that it cannot be reversed.