Download - China's workers rising.june3.2014
China’s Workers Rising
BCFL/VDLC Delegation
Orientation
June 3, 2014
Most populous country in the world: 1.4 Billion
Since Liberation in 1949 Socialist period, 1949-1978 First part of reform period, 1978-1992 Post Southern Tour, 1992-2010 New militancy, 2010 to 2014
What is this event?
Urban danwei (work unit) system
Lifetime employment guarantee Housing provided and subsidized Food and fuel subsidized Medical care system provided Public school education free No firings or negative discipline Positive examples such as model workers
Workers had a lot of power in a socialist
society Unions didn’t have to protect people from firing or unfair discipline
Management was paternalistic (eg. Beijing Jeep)
Wage system was very egalitarian
But, things have changed….
Unions in the past:1949-1978, Role:
Organized the ping pong tournaments
Helped out sick people
Promoted production and model workers
Promoted good nutrition “The union gave us eggs.”
ACFTU One party and one
union All-China
Federation of Trade Unions
No independent unions
1976: Terrible Year January: Premier Zhou died April: flowers in Tiananmen Square July: earthquake in Tangshan:
250,000 died September: Chairman Mao died October: Gang of Four arrested
1978 Deng Xiaoping came to power
New China started down the capitalist road
One of Deng’s first invited
guests: Milton Friedman,
Chicago School of Economics
1980, Special Economic Zones established for industry to try
out capitalist methods of production.
This is Shenzhen in 1980.
Shenzhen today
Privatization of industry and lay-offs of millions of workers in
State-Owned Enterprises
started slowly
Inflation of the late 1980s lead to protest about corruption and
accountability
1989 Tiananmen Square Far more workers were
killed than students They defended the streets
leading to the Square by barricading them
1992: Deng’s Southern Tour
Workers fought back against structural
changes and lay-offs 2000, official tally of
collective actions: 8,247 involving 259,445 workers
2002, Northeast action
Liaoning, 30,000 workers protested
Liaoyang city, leaders arrested and jailed
China joined WTO in 2001What event preceded it two
months before?
Effects on people UNCTAD estimates 25 million
unemployed resulting from WTO entry in 2001
Education has plummeted in rural areas, especially among girls; less than ½ girls attend schools in some provinces
Public health coverage: – 1978: 90% of population covered through
work unit or commune; – 1997: 4% covered
Learn from Daqing
Fighting back in Daqing Daqing, 50,000 oil workers demonstrated, 2002 Formed Daqing Provisional Union of Retrenched
Workers
Privatization of industry and lay-offs of workers in State-
Owned Enterprises intensified and workers fought back with
demonstrations, blockades
Chinese workers are rebelling and standing up
for justice
Who is benefitting from the ‘economic miracle’ of
the Chinese economy?
And who is not?
Gap between rich and poor enormous
Support for strikes? Why now?
Wages have fallen from 17% of total economic output in 1980 to 11% in 2008, creating resentment among workers who feel they are owed a bigger share of China’s new wealth.
At the same time there are many more wealthy people. The gap between rich and poor is as much as the U.S.
Apple iPad
Apple computers
Who makes these great gadgets?
Foxconn workers in Guangdong, China
Motherboards etc.
Foxconn Enormously profitable Taiwanese
company More than 1 million workers in China
Most Foxconn factories in SE cities
Most workers have migrated from the
countryside
Most SE plants Low wages Poor benefits Long hours Forced overtime Monotonous work Strict discipline Called ‘blood and sweat’ shops in China
Foxconn-owned plants are particularly bad
Run like military camps (brow) beaten by security guards if
they don’t line up properly
Foxconn workersIn dormitories they may be on different shifts and don’t have the chance to make friends
Unhappiness led to utter despair
In 2010 14 Foxconn workers committed suicide
Young men and women in their early 20s
Southern Weekly undercover report
Story picked up by rest of media in China and reports were closely followed
Shocked the nation People were glued to their television
sets and newspapers Foxconn was roundly condemned and
many did not attribute the ‘blood and sweat’ shop conditions to Foxconn alone, but abhorred the conditions in so many factories
Foxconn’s response? Put up anti-suicide nets on the
dormitories
What to wear at an anti-suicide rally
Workers finally got a 30% - 70% wage increase
Not because of the effort of the union in the workplaces because it was a fake union run by relatives of managers; it was public pressure
Not only product knock-offs are fakes
But most workers don’t despair, they fight back
Honda auto parts plants workers organized in the summer of 2010
They had been working alongside Japanese workers paid many times (50X) what they received
So they organized and struck for change &
improvements
The parts plants workers stuck together
Effect of Just-in-time production: shut down the
Honda assembly plants
In some cases, the “union” roughed up the
workers As Chair of the Guangzhou Trade
Union said to us, “These are fake unions”.
The strikers received top level support
Premier Wen Jiabao Urged better treatment for the nation's
vast army of migrant labourers. “Rural migrant workers are the main
army of the contemporary Chinese industrial workforce. Our wealth and our tall buildings are all distillations of your hard work and sweat,” Wen told a group of migrant workers in Beijing, the People's Daily reported the following day.
Wen was the first high ranking official to comment publicly about strikes and the current labour situation.
At the end of the meeting, which got top billing on national TV, he said, “The government and all parts of society should treat young migrant workers as they would treat their own children.”
The first Honda parts workers won 24% wage
increase Strikes spread to other Honda parts
plants and they won 45% increase
And the strikes spread elsewhere
E.g. Tianjin Mitsumi Electric workers
In Guangdong Province alone
There were 90 work stoppages to demand wage increases mainly in joint ventures or auto parts and electronics industries of the Pearl River Delta (near Hong Kong)
But workers have been striking in China for years Strikes aren’t illegal in China In 1982 the right to strike was removed
from the constitution but there’s no prohibition on strikes in law
As the income gap widens in China, there is more and more resentment
10,000 ‘mass incidents’ in Pearl River Delta alone; 80,000 countrywide
Robots or people?
Today Chinese Workers Are Fighting Back
Number of protests (gov’t calls them ‘mass incidents’) continues to grow
In ‘05 official stats reported 87,000 and by ‘08 it was 50% higher at 127,000
2011, 180,000 mass incidents Typically fighting expropriation of homes and
land for resource developments (dams, mines etc.) or construction
Industrialized regions 50% of ‘mass incidents’ were over wage arrears, workplace closures, layoffs
Today, in some areas, workers have more power
Elimination of the agricultural tax (over 5 years, now completely gone)
Migrant workers still have title to land and the right to return
After being cheated in the economic meltdown in fall 2008-early 2009, many went home and stayed
Thus creating the most important weapon labour has, a labour shortage
Those that returned to the city (or never left)
Have seen Paris and don’t want to go back home
They live in the cities and want a better life:– Housing, not just dormitories– With kitchens, not just cafeteria food– Consumer goods like what they produce
In order to achieve these goals they need higher wages.
And today the strikes and demonstrations
Are by employed workers And are not just fighting for unpaid wages,
to receive the minimum wage, to receive pay for overtime worked
But are about real increases, real improvements to wages and working conditions
Labour shortages and labour courage have brought this about
Who makes Adidas runners for sale in Germany?
In April, 2014, nobody
Latest big strike Yue Yuen, manufacturer of Adidas, Nike,
Timberland and Converse shoes in southeast (20% of world market for sports and casual shoes)
40,000 workers cheated out of social security premiums not paid by employer: unemployment, old age pension, medical, maternity and occupational injury insurances
Also, majority of workers were not paid housing funds
Benefits paid on average salary vs. actual monthly
salary Workers would thus receive lower retirement
benefits According to local labour laws and regulations,
employers must pay an amount equal to about 11 percent of workers' salaries for their social security and other welfare categories, while the workers pay 8 percent of their salaries, "But the company never paid its part for the workers," said the worker.
This is a common practice among manufacturing employers
Workers Struck
First 600 stormed out of work April 5, 2014
Blocked roads Joined by thousands more on following
Monday and Tuesday A human resources executive who
requested anonymity confirmed that the social benefit payments had been shorted. Only about 1,000 workers of the plant's 45,000 have been paid housing funds, he said.
Thousands defied police
Defying police
Effect of Strike and Mediation Efforts
At first the employer agreed to start paying correct insurance premiums but balked at retroactive payments
Nie Xin, an official from the city's publicity department, said Dongguan city government paid great attention to the case after the strike took place at Yue Yuan
A special task force that consisted of more than 80 government officials, trade union executives, legal and labour experts, lawyers and police officers, was immediately set up to help mediate the strike, which raised concerns at home and abroad, Nie told China Daily.
"The task force members met worker representatives to listen to their account and request, and organized discussions with company bosses and senior executives in the past weeks," Nie said.
"The special task force has been working hard to try to make both parties of labour and capital reach an agreement according to laws, regulation and rules," he added.
Employer finally agreed to pay retroactive insurance premiums
Lin DongShenzhen Labour Activist
Arrested on 22 April after advising striking workers at the Yue Yuen factory, is being held under a 30-day detention order at the Dongguan Municipal Detention Centre on suspicion of “picking quarrels and creating trouble”
Colleague, Zhang Zhiru, detained 2 days and released
Who will lead the workers?
What about unions in China today?
ACFTU Most Populous Union in World
258 million members
China has many challenges
And a good opportunity to build many successes for workers, and a return to a more egalitarian society
In the Year of the Horse and beyond
Thanks very much.