http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/15/world/asia/china-labor-strike-protest.html
Labor Protests Multiply in China as Economy Slows, Worrying Leaders
By JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ
MARCH 14, 2016 [China] [PRC] [Guangzhou (southeast)] [labor unrest accompanies China's slowing economy?] [use psci 390-5] [*]
GUANGZHOU, China -- For nearly seven years, Li Wei rose before dawn for
his 10-hour shift at the steel plant, returning home each night soaked
in sweat, the clank of heavy machinery still ringing in his ears. But
last month, the 31-year-old welder stood outside the plant with hundreds
of co-workers, picketing against pay cuts and singing patriotic battle
hymns.
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/15/world/asia/china-labor-strike-protest.html
Labor Protests Multiply in China as Economy Slows, Worrying Leaders
By JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ
MARCH 14, 2016 [China] [PRC] [Guangzhou (southeast)] [labor unrest accompanies China's slowing economy?] [use psci 390-5] [*]
GUANGZHOU, China -- For nearly seven years, Li Wei rose before dawn for
his 10-hour shift at the steel plant, returning home each night soaked
in sweat, the clank of heavy machinery still ringing in his ears. But
last month, the 31-year-old welder stood outside the plant with hundreds
of co-workers, picketing against pay cuts and singing patriotic battle
hymns.
Within a week, the authorities declared their strike illegal,
threatening fines and imprisonment. The police descended on the plant by
the hundreds, tearing down signs and ordering the protesters to go back
to work. "I've sacrificed my life for this company," Mr. Li told
officers as they sought to disperse the workers. "How can you do this?"
As China's economy slows after more than two decades of breakneck
growth, strikes and labor protests have erupted across the country.
Factories, mines and other businesses are withholding wages and
benefits, laying off staff or shutting down altogether. Worried about
their prospects in a gloomy job market, workers are fighting back with
unusual ferocity. [*]
Last week, hundreds if not thousands of angry employees of the
state-owned Longmay Mining Group, the biggest coal company in
northeastern China, staged one of the most politically daring protests
over unpaid salaries yet, denouncing the provincial governor as he and
other senior leaders gathered for an annual meeting in Beijing. [*]
China Labor Bulletin, a labor rights group based in Hong Kong, recorded
more than 2,700 strikes and protests last year, more than double the
number in 2014. The strife appears to have intensified in recent months,
with more than 500 protests in January alone.
Most demonstrations have refrained from political attacks and focused on
grievances such as wage arrears, unpaid benefits like pension
contributions and unsafe working conditions.
President Xi Jinping, concerned about challenges to the ruling Communist
Party, has responded with a methodical crackdown, quashing protests,
dismantling labor rights organizations and imprisoning activists. But
his government has also sought to placate workers, putting pressure on
businesses to settle disputes and making billions of dollars available
for welfare payments and retraining programs.
The approach underlines the political dilemma that labor unrest poses
for the Communist Party, which has continued to portray itself as a
socialist guardian of worker's rights even as it has embraced capitalism
and welcomed tycoons into its ranks.
The tide of protests appears to be cresting as Mr. Xi contemplates a
tremendous downsizing of China's bloated state industries, which are
producing much more steel, cement and other goods than the market needs.
According to a recent study, more than three million workers could lose
their jobs in the next two years if the cuts go through. The government
has already announced plans to lay off 1.8 million steel and coal
workers. [*]
China trimmed the state sector of more than 30 million workers during a
wave of privatization and restructuring during the late 1990s and early
2000s. But the economy was booming then, creating millions of jobs in
new industries. It is still growing today, but at its slowest pace in a
quarter century.
At the same time, Mr. Xi is grappling with a labor force that is better
informed and more easily organized because of social media, and also
more assertive, in part because of grass-roots rights groups that have
emerged.
"This is probably the thing that keeps Xi Jinping up at night," said Eli
Friedman, a scholar at Cornell University who studies Chinese labor
issues. "Governments are not swimming in money the way they used to be,
and there's less room to compromise."
Here in the capital of Guangdong Province in southern China, several
hundred workers at the state-owned Angang Lianzhong steel plant went on
strike last month in response to a plan to decrease wages by as much as
half and extend the workday to 12 hours for some employees.
"Toward the sun, toward freedom!" the workers chanted one morning as
they demonstrated outside, reciting a World War II-era army song.
They used WeChat, a popular messaging app, to rally support and raise
money to buy protest banners. In one widely shared post, they described
how the authorities tried to stop them from playing the national anthem
on a loudspeaker. (Its first line is, "Rise, we who refuse to be
slaves!")
After the police broke up the strike, the plant promised to delay its
planned wage cuts. But several workers said they returned to work only
because they feared punishment.
"I lost hope that anything would change," said Mr. Li, the welder,
adding that he was anxious about finding a new job to support his wife
and son.
Officials at the steel plant did not respond for requests for comment.
Guangdong, which manufactures much of the world's toys, shoes, clothes
and furniture, has been a hotbed of worker discontent. In recent months,
many foreign-invested factories here have relocated to central China
and Southeast Asia. Some have moved without making severance or pension
payments, in violation of Chinese law. Last year, the province averaged
more than one labor dispute a day, according to China Labor Bulletin.
Protests have been reported in every part of the country, with the
strife most pronounced in the manufacturing and construction industries,
which accounted for two-thirds of the demonstrations.
Most of the protests last year were against private employers. But the
demonstrations last week in Shuangyashan, a mining town near the Russian
border in Heilongjiang Province, suggests the unrest could spread to
businesses owned by the government if Mr. Xi pushes ahead with efforts
to overhaul the economy by reining in state industries.
Miners and others there took to the streets complaining of unpaid wages
after the provincial governor held up their company, Longmay, as an
example of how state firms could be restructured without hurting
workers. He made his remarks during the annual session of China's
legislature, the National People's Congress.
Longmay said in September that it planned to lay off 100,000 workers,
eliminating about 40 percent of the work force at 42 mines.
Despite rising discontent, there have been few signs that a national
labor movement might emerge. The authorities have worked assiduously to
block workers from joining forces.
The government prohibits workers from establishing independent labor
unions, instead requiring they join only the party-controlled All-China
Federation of Trade Unions. It is supposed to mediate labor disputes,
but management usually chooses the workers who sit at the bargaining
table.
The authorities have also clamped down on social media, shutting down
accounts of labor activists, deleting news reports on strikes and
monitoring chat forums for signs of collective action.
In recent years, a proliferation of nonprofit labor rights groups has
sought to help workers negotiate contracts and maintain solidarity
during strikes. The authorities had been mostly tolerant and sometimes
treated them as allies in enforcing labor laws.
But as worker protests have become more frequent, bold and
sophisticated, state security forces have tightened their grip. In
December, the authorities arrested Zeng Feiyang, one of China's most
prominent labor organizers, accusing him of "gathering a crowd to
disturb social order." Three other activists were detained as well.
Mr. Zeng, 41, had orchestrated successful campaigns against influential
factories and state-owned firms in Guangdong and tutored a generation of
labor activists. After his arrest, state news outlets began a smear
campaign accusing him of hiring prostitutes, stealing from workers and
conspiring with hostile foreign forces.
In interviews, several activists said they had gone into hiding and were
declining new cases. Mr. Zeng's center here, once a bustling meeting
place for workers, now sits empty with a new security camera above its
front door.
Wu Guijun, a labor activist in nearby Shenzhen, said he had started
warning workers against holding demonstrations, for fear that they might
be arrested, too.
"The environment has changed," he said. "We need time to grow up. We
can't just die in the cradle. We have to change our strategy."
Follow Javier C. Hernández on Twitter @HernandezJavier. Adam Wu contributed research.
end quote from:
hydrablog.csusm.edu/2016/03/labor-protests...
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