"Soft Power" Restricts the Development of Jinjiang Shoes Industry

As one of the four major shoemaking bases in China, Jinjiang has 20% of the world's production of sports shoes, and has many well-known Chinese trademarks, Chinese famous brand products, Fujian famous trademarks and famous brands, etc. It is known as the footwear brand capital. In recent years, in order to promote the further development of the shoe industry, many shoe companies in Jinjiang invested a lot of money in hardware, and some of the plant equipment has even reached the international advanced level. However, "soft power", Jinjiang shoe companies still have some hidden dangers, such as the use of footwear accessories.

Due to the cost of production, Jinjiang still uses traditional oily glue. In addition to adhesives for climbing and molding, the footwear industry also widely uses cleaning agents, treating agents, and polishes, and many of these materials have organic solvents. According to statistics from the China Adhesives Industry Association, the amount of rubber used for shoes in 2008 was as high as 300,000 tons. With an average of 20% solid content, about 240,000 tons of organic solvents were directly discharged into the atmosphere. Relevant professionals said that these organic solvents, in addition to air pollution, also cause occupational diseases in direct contact through inhalation of the respiratory system and skin penetration.

In recent years, not only in the Jinjiang area, shoe enterprises in many places have experienced difficulties in recruiting workers. Some people conducted in-depth investigations and found that the work environment is one of the reasons for the "labor shortage." Now 80 and 90 have gradually become the main workers, they are different from the previous generation, began to focus on quality of life, pay attention to personal health. Recently, the reporter interviewed a technician named Chen Chen who returned to his hometown.

Xiao Chen is 20 years old this year and came to Jinjiang, Fujian, from Zhuzhou City, Hunan Province last year. He worked as a technical worker in an assembly line at a medium-sized shoe factory. In more than a year's work time, she was named the company's outstanding employee of the year due to her hard work. However, recently she resigned. When the reporter asked the reason, Chen reluctantly replied: "In this year and more, I learned a lot of technology and knowledge from the factory. The factory is also very good for us. Staff management, welfare benefits, etc. are all better than my fellow countrymen who came out to work at the same time. However, someone who has just entered the bank has told me that the individual factories will not be in good health for a long time. I feel the same and work every day. The most unpleasant one was the odor of the pungent shoe with glue. I was very frightened when I was in the workshop, and I was very frightened. So I discussed with my family and decided to resign and return home for a while and think about the future."

Caring for employees and creating a green environment

With the increasingly urgent needs of the footwear industry transformation, people-oriented, care for employees and protect the environment has become a major issue for the footwear industry in Jinjiang.
As a well-known domestic shoe brand, Hongxing Erke has already adopted the waterborne rubber developed by Bayer from Germany several years ago to replace traditional oily plastics, fully protecting the health of employees. Going into the plant of Hongxing Erke, we saw a clear-cut standard factory building. All the employees worked in the assembly line. The reporter asked several 90 employees on the spot. They said that they were relatively satisfied with the environment of the factory and few were aware of it. Irritating odor.