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.