As the supply of female factory-workers dwindles, blue-collar women gain clout
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Ten years ago, a young migrant worker, Sun Zhigang, was brutally beaten to death whilst in police custody in Guangzhou. When the incident was reported by the Southern Metropolitan Daily at the end of April 2003, it caused a national outrage and mounting public pressure forced the newly installed government in Beijing to quickly dismantle regulations controlling the movement of migrant workers in an attempt to prevent a similar tragedy in the future.
Despite a sharp drop in inflation last month, workers’ demands for higher pay were still the biggest single cause of the 50 strikes and protests recorded on CLB’s strike map in March. Photograph by W PeacePlusOne available at flickr.com under a creative commons licence.
“If leaving, remitting, and returning are the three key words that define the old generation, then leaving, searching, and becoming are the main themes for the new generation.” Jennifer Cheung talks to the new generation of factory girls in China. Photograph courtesy of the Sunflower Centre in Guangzhou.
Around 100 production line workers at the Nanhai Honda automotive plant, scene of a groundbreaking strike in the summer of 2010, staged another strike on the evening of 18 March after management and the trade union announced a new pay deal, workers told CLB.
There was a significant increase in the number of worker protests in China during the run-up to the Lunar New Year, with factory workers seeking pay increases and untold numbers of labourers demanding wage arrears. Photograph of strike at Beijing Foxconn from Sina Weibo.
Manufacturing giant Foxconn, which that makes the iPhone, iPad and other Apple products in China, plans to offer its workforce greater representation in trade unions.
The annual meeting of the Guangdong People’s Congress this year was marked by garbage piled up in the streets of the provincial capital Guangzhou as hundreds of sanitation workers in more than five districts around city went on strike for higher pay and social insurance payments. Photography by Hsingy available at flickr.com under a creative commons license.
Attempts by local governments in China to change the way high school teachers are paid have resulted in an upsurge in strikes and protests by teachers over the last two months. In January alone, CLB has recorded at least ten strikes and protests by teachers across the country. Photograph of Hefeng School in Zhuhai, Guangdong.
After two months dominated by wage arrears cases, worker protests in China are featuring demands for higher pay again as the economy begins to improve and the cost of living increases. China Labour Bulletin recorded 45 collective protests on our strike map in December, including 16 wage arrears protests and nine demands for pay increases. Photo of strike at Shenzhen toy factory from Weibo..
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