Crux
30th November 2011, 19:42
Upsurge of strikes in southern China (http://www.chinaworker.info/en/content/news/1665/)
Wednesday, 30 November 2011.
Pay cuts, increased pressure and threat of relocation trigger a new wave of labour unrest
chinaworker.info reporters
“Labour issues are explosive,” admitted factory owner Willie Fung Wai-yiu after a five-day strike by his largely female workforce.
The strike at Top Form International Holdings Shenzhen factory was reportedly sparked by a Cantonese-speaking production manager told a Sichuanese migrant worker to “jump off a roof and go to hell”. Instead, two-thirds of the 800-strong labour force marched off the job, crippling production at the factory, which manufactures lingerie for brands such as Vanity Fair, Warnaco, Komar Intimates and Wacoal. The above-mentioned incident acted as a trigger, but the women’s action arose from long standing grievances over low wages and unreachable production quotas. At the time of writing, most of the migrant workforce had returned to work, but some were holding out. The company announced that “three troublemakers” had been dismissed – almost certainly in an act of victimisation for the strike.
This was just one of many recent strikes in the gigantic manufacturing region of Guangdong, where more than 20m migrant factory workers produce around a third of China’s exports. Workers are being squeezed as companies shift production to hinterland provinces or cheaper labour economies such as Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia. Bosses are also on a cost-cutting offensive due to an export slowdown especially from the European Union, China’s largest market. The southern province’s exports dropped 9 per cent in October from the previous month.
As the Financial Times (23 November) noted, “China is facing its worst wave of labour unrest since a series of wildcat strikes at Japanese-owned car plants last year, as declining export orders force factories to reduce worker pay.”
Strike continues inside factory
Once again, the world’s largest non-unionised workforce finds itself pitted against riot police, foreign bosses, and intense pressure from the one-party state to resume work in the name of ‘stability’.
Thousands of workers at a massive shoe factory in Dongguan staged a strike and street protests, continuing their refusal to work despite being forced back to the factory by police and security guards.
On 17 November, 8,000 workers at the Yucheng Footwear factory went on strike and marched to the local government office to protest the loss of overtime and other austerity measures including restrictions on toilet visits. Ten workers were injured during a confrontation with riot police, according to Ming Pao Daily. The strike followed the sacking of 18 middle managers and rumours the plant would relocate to Jiangxi province, where wages are much lower.
Basic wage rates for migrant factory workers even in Dongguan and the wider Pearl River Delta are very low, necessitating long hours of overtime to make up a living wage.
“We were forced to return to the factory,” one worker told the Financial Times. “But we just sit there. No one is operating machines.”
The local government had taken a tough stance during negotiations and sided with the management, this worker told the Financial Times.
CNN quoted another worker at the plant: “The slow-down strike is still on [after five days] but there’s no street protest because the police have been mobilized.”
“They will have more strikes”
Earlier in the same week, 1,000 workers took strike action in nearby Shenzhen at a factory making computer keyboards for leading brands such as Apple and IBM. Workers at Jing Mold Electronics Technology said they were being forced to work excessive amounts of overtime on weekdays so the company could avoid its legal requirement to pay overtime on Saturdays. “The company acquiesced after three days,” reported the Los Angeles Times (28 November 2011).
“People had to work so late, they couldn’t concentrate any longer,” said Zhao Xiaobing, 38, a former employee. “They will have more strikes.”
Two other strikes took place in October – one at watchmaker Citizen Holdings in Shenzhen and one at a Dongguan furniture factory where workers were left unpaid after their boss absconded.
Factory output falling
Unlike the strikes last summer, most recent strikes have been defensive in character – brought on by management cost cutting and the threat of job losses. Last year’s wave of strikes especially in the motor industry saw some significant concessions at least over pay and conditions, while not realising the workers’ central demand for grassroots unions independent of the dictatorship-controlled ACFTU. The main trend today is one of reduced overtime or attacks on bonuses and other ‘extras’ that workers depend on to supplement low pay.
“When orders and profits decline and costs of business increase for manufacturers... their first instinct is to pass those costs on to the workers,” said Geoffrey Crothall of China Labour Bulletin.
“Also many businesses in the Pearl River Delta are planning to relocate inland and this is creating uncertainty and anxiety among the workforce,” said Crothall.
China’s economic engine is visibly running out of gas. The economy grew 9.1 percent last quarter from a year ago, the lowest since 2009, but a more pronounced slowdown seems to be in the offing. Deepening global economic turmoil is taking its toll along with a host of ‘home-grown’ economic problems such as the government’s credit squeeze. Several major banks have this week cut their forecasts for GDP growth next year, with Citigroup and Morgan Stanley now tipping 8.4 percent. For China, this would be the weakest growth in a decade.
“Compared with last year’s 10.4 percent growth such a slowdown would feel like a recession to many ordinary Chinese,” commented the South China Morning Post (30 November 2011).
With inflation still at 5.5 percent officially, and more than double this in reality, the government faces a tough call over whether to resume stimulus policies and risk a new surge of inflation, with the risk of more labour conflicts and ‘instability’, or maintain its monetary tightening measures and risk a sharp economic slowdown.
As these economic storm clouds gather, the struggle for worker-controlled unions and factory committees has become urgent. Socialists and labour activists around the world should step up solidarity actions with Chinese workers to stamp out sweatshop conditions and win full democratic rights.
Wednesday, 30 November 2011.
Pay cuts, increased pressure and threat of relocation trigger a new wave of labour unrest
chinaworker.info reporters
“Labour issues are explosive,” admitted factory owner Willie Fung Wai-yiu after a five-day strike by his largely female workforce.
The strike at Top Form International Holdings Shenzhen factory was reportedly sparked by a Cantonese-speaking production manager told a Sichuanese migrant worker to “jump off a roof and go to hell”. Instead, two-thirds of the 800-strong labour force marched off the job, crippling production at the factory, which manufactures lingerie for brands such as Vanity Fair, Warnaco, Komar Intimates and Wacoal. The above-mentioned incident acted as a trigger, but the women’s action arose from long standing grievances over low wages and unreachable production quotas. At the time of writing, most of the migrant workforce had returned to work, but some were holding out. The company announced that “three troublemakers” had been dismissed – almost certainly in an act of victimisation for the strike.
This was just one of many recent strikes in the gigantic manufacturing region of Guangdong, where more than 20m migrant factory workers produce around a third of China’s exports. Workers are being squeezed as companies shift production to hinterland provinces or cheaper labour economies such as Cambodia, Vietnam and Indonesia. Bosses are also on a cost-cutting offensive due to an export slowdown especially from the European Union, China’s largest market. The southern province’s exports dropped 9 per cent in October from the previous month.
As the Financial Times (23 November) noted, “China is facing its worst wave of labour unrest since a series of wildcat strikes at Japanese-owned car plants last year, as declining export orders force factories to reduce worker pay.”
Strike continues inside factory
Once again, the world’s largest non-unionised workforce finds itself pitted against riot police, foreign bosses, and intense pressure from the one-party state to resume work in the name of ‘stability’.
Thousands of workers at a massive shoe factory in Dongguan staged a strike and street protests, continuing their refusal to work despite being forced back to the factory by police and security guards.
On 17 November, 8,000 workers at the Yucheng Footwear factory went on strike and marched to the local government office to protest the loss of overtime and other austerity measures including restrictions on toilet visits. Ten workers were injured during a confrontation with riot police, according to Ming Pao Daily. The strike followed the sacking of 18 middle managers and rumours the plant would relocate to Jiangxi province, where wages are much lower.
Basic wage rates for migrant factory workers even in Dongguan and the wider Pearl River Delta are very low, necessitating long hours of overtime to make up a living wage.
“We were forced to return to the factory,” one worker told the Financial Times. “But we just sit there. No one is operating machines.”
The local government had taken a tough stance during negotiations and sided with the management, this worker told the Financial Times.
CNN quoted another worker at the plant: “The slow-down strike is still on [after five days] but there’s no street protest because the police have been mobilized.”
“They will have more strikes”
Earlier in the same week, 1,000 workers took strike action in nearby Shenzhen at a factory making computer keyboards for leading brands such as Apple and IBM. Workers at Jing Mold Electronics Technology said they were being forced to work excessive amounts of overtime on weekdays so the company could avoid its legal requirement to pay overtime on Saturdays. “The company acquiesced after three days,” reported the Los Angeles Times (28 November 2011).
“People had to work so late, they couldn’t concentrate any longer,” said Zhao Xiaobing, 38, a former employee. “They will have more strikes.”
Two other strikes took place in October – one at watchmaker Citizen Holdings in Shenzhen and one at a Dongguan furniture factory where workers were left unpaid after their boss absconded.
Factory output falling
Unlike the strikes last summer, most recent strikes have been defensive in character – brought on by management cost cutting and the threat of job losses. Last year’s wave of strikes especially in the motor industry saw some significant concessions at least over pay and conditions, while not realising the workers’ central demand for grassroots unions independent of the dictatorship-controlled ACFTU. The main trend today is one of reduced overtime or attacks on bonuses and other ‘extras’ that workers depend on to supplement low pay.
“When orders and profits decline and costs of business increase for manufacturers... their first instinct is to pass those costs on to the workers,” said Geoffrey Crothall of China Labour Bulletin.
“Also many businesses in the Pearl River Delta are planning to relocate inland and this is creating uncertainty and anxiety among the workforce,” said Crothall.
China’s economic engine is visibly running out of gas. The economy grew 9.1 percent last quarter from a year ago, the lowest since 2009, but a more pronounced slowdown seems to be in the offing. Deepening global economic turmoil is taking its toll along with a host of ‘home-grown’ economic problems such as the government’s credit squeeze. Several major banks have this week cut their forecasts for GDP growth next year, with Citigroup and Morgan Stanley now tipping 8.4 percent. For China, this would be the weakest growth in a decade.
“Compared with last year’s 10.4 percent growth such a slowdown would feel like a recession to many ordinary Chinese,” commented the South China Morning Post (30 November 2011).
With inflation still at 5.5 percent officially, and more than double this in reality, the government faces a tough call over whether to resume stimulus policies and risk a new surge of inflation, with the risk of more labour conflicts and ‘instability’, or maintain its monetary tightening measures and risk a sharp economic slowdown.
As these economic storm clouds gather, the struggle for worker-controlled unions and factory committees has become urgent. Socialists and labour activists around the world should step up solidarity actions with Chinese workers to stamp out sweatshop conditions and win full democratic rights.