Chinese riot police brought a semblance of calm to the riot-torn southern Chinese city of Zengcheng on Tuesday, but the anger of migrant workers at being discriminated against by the authorities remained palpable in this key export hub.
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Police in the southern city of Chaozhou have detained nine protestors after a demonstration by more than 200 migrant workers escalated into violence on 6 June, with several cars being smashed and dozens of people injured.
Fourteen workers, including some with mental disabilities, were rescued by local government officials from a brick factory in southern Guangdong on 12 May after their plight was reported in the Guangzhou Daily. The workers, some as young as 15-years-old, had been tricked or even kidnapped by labour traffickers and sold to the brick factory operator for just 400 yuan. They were forced to work 15 hours a day and beaten by thugs if they tried to escape. One worker told the newspaper that they were paid just five yuan for three months work.
China’s only legal trade union organization, a tool of Communist Party control long scorned by workers as a shill for big business, is experimenting with a novel idea: speaking up for labor.
The Guangzhou authorities plan, within the next three years, to establish new regional trade unions that would cover nearly all workers in the city's automotive and several other industrial sectors, the official media reported on 15 April.
In a somewhat unexpected move, Guangzhou businessman and national legislator, Zeng Qinghong, has made a proposal to the National People’s Congress (NPC) to protect the right of Chinese workers to go on strike.
Workers at the Nanhai Honda automotive components plant in Foshan, who won a 500 yuan per month pay increase after going out on strike last year, have gained an additional 611 yuan a month increase this year through peaceful collective bargaining.
China’s manufacturing powerhouse, Guangdong, will raise its legal minimum wage again tomorrow, 1 March, in a bid to offset rising food prices and address the serious labour shortage that has affected the province for more than a year.
I was buying an electronic gizmo online last night, when an alert popped up that the New Year observance in China would delay the arrival of my order. Today marks the start of a new lunar calendar -- and the most important holiday in China. It's a time when the cogs in China's massive economic machine stop turning and take a break. But for those doing business there, it's a stressful time. Marketplace China correspondent Rob Schmitz explains why.
Among the millions crowding China's railways stations and airports in the annual Lunar New Year trek home are many workers who won't be coming back to their jobs in the workshop of the world.
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