Guangdong

Guangzhou workers increase pressure on government over wages

Two strikes in four days by thousands of Guangzhou factory workers demanding higher pay have renewed the pressure on the provincial government to increase the minimum wage. The Guangdong government was expected to increase its statutory minimum wage earlier in the year but under pressure from the Hong Kong business lobby, the government announced that the minimum wage would only be increased later at “the appropriate time.” Photograph of strikers at the Citizen factory in Guangzhou from Weibo.

Local governments more active in labour dispute resolution

Local governments took a far more active role in dealing with strikes and worker protests in May, directly intervening in half the cases recorded on CLB’s strike map last month. Local governments intervened or mediated in nine of the 20 strikes recorded in May, compared with just one such intervention in April. Pay demands once again dominated workers’ complaints with nine cases last month, and the manufacturing sector was once again the major source of strikes, primarily in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and foreign invested factories.

Pay disputes and factory relocations the focus of strike action in April

After an upsurge in strike action last month, generated in part by transport workers’ dissatisfaction over the cost of fuel, the focus of labour activism returned to the factory floor in April, particularly in those factories that were planning to downsize or relocate. China Labour Bulletin recorded a total of 30 strikes in April, down eight from a month ago. Strikes in the manufacturing sector however rose 17 percent from March to 20 cases in April.

Migrant worker wages increase by 21 percent

China’s rural migrant workers got an average pay increase of around 21 percent last year, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on 29 April. The average monthly wage for the estimated 159 million rural migrant workers employed away from their home area increased by 359 yuan to reach 2,049 yuan

Survey shows China’s job market still out of kilter

On Monday 9 April more than 200 college graduates applied for 20 job openings as garbage sorters in Guangzhou. By contrast, according to the latest national job market data in China, there were on average only 100 applicants for 218 jobs as senior technicians in the first quarter of this year.

China’s workers emboldened: Strikes escalate in March

The number of strikes recorded by China Labour Bulletin in March 2012 reached its highest monthly total since we started monitoring worker protests on a day to day basis 15 months ago. A total of 38 strikes were logged across China, primarily in the manufacturing and transportation sectors. Half of the strikes, 19 in all, were related to pay demands, three concerned factory relocations, three strikes were in protest at merger or restructuring plans, and four were related to the payment of overtime.

The Economist: Unrest in China - A dangerous year

IN AN industrial zone near Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province in south-west China, a sign colourfully proclaims the sprawl of factories to be a “delightful, harmonious and happy district”. Angry steelworkers must have winced as they marched past the slogan in their thousands in early January, demanding higher wages. Their three-day strike was unusually large for an enterprise owned by the central government. But, as China’s economy begins to grow more sedately, more such unrest is looming.

El Pais: China entra en el siglo del urbanismo

La población urbana es por primera vez mayor que la rural en China, un cambio histórico que tendrá grandes consecuencias sobre la fuerza laboral en la llamada fábrica del mundo y someterá a una fuerte presión a los servicios sociales, el transporte y el medio ambiente en las ciudades, según los expertos. En 1949, cuando Mao Zedong proclamó la República Popular China tras vencer a los nacionalistas de Chiang Kai-shek gracias al apoyo de las masas agrarias, el 89% de la gente vivía en el campo. En los 30 años que siguieron, esta cifra solo bajó ocho puntos y se situó en el 81%.

BBC Radio 4: Crossing Continents

China Labour Bulletin Director Han Dongfang is quoted in this half-hour radio documentary on migrant workers in Guangdong, produced and presented by Mukul Devichand for the BBC.

Financial Times: Chinese villagers protest over custody death

Thousands of people from a southern Chinese village protested on Wednesday against the death in police custody of a popular local leader following a standoff over land acquisition and allegations of corruption.

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