NYT May 17, 2000
Unrest Grows in China's Old State Plants
By ERIK ECKHOLM
B EIJING, May 16 -- Up to 2,000 unpaid workers and retirees have
besieged their factory and government offices in a northeastern
city over the last two days, the latest example of growing labor
unrest as China's once-dominant state industries collapse.
On Monday, nearly 1,000 employees of the Liaoyang Ferroalloy
Factory gathered at the plant gate and blocked the adjacent highway
as they demanded wages and pensions that some have not received for
as long as 20 months, demonstrators said today by telephone.
The factory is in Liaoyang, a city of 1.8 million in the Rust Belt
province of Liaoning, where similar protests have been frequent.
After midnight, hundreds of police officers broke up the crowd,
beating people and detaining three retirees who had helped organize
the demonstration, according to relatives of those in custody. One
detainee, Lu Ran, 66, had a heart attack overnight and was moved to
a hospital.
This morning, as news of the detentions spread, close to 2,000
furious current and former workers of the factory gathered around
the offices of the city government, seeking the release of the
three organizers, as well as their back pay. Eventually, workers'
12 representatives met a deputy mayor, and at day's end, after
having secured a promise that current and past wages, pensions and
living stipends for laid-off workers would soon be paid, the
protesters went home.
The detainees' fate remained unclear, a protester said, and there
was talk of possible further demonstrations in the days ahead. Many
workers remained skeptical about the promised pay, the protester
added, because similar promises have been broken in the past.
Around China, workers' protests, strikes and other labor disputes
have rapidly increased over the last few years, according to
official records and Western diplomats.
The backdrop is the wrenching transition from state-owned
enterprises, many of which are not competitive. But protests often
also reflect worker resentment against corruption or unfair
treatment.
The Communist Party leadership is plainly worried. But most
political experts say they believe that the thousands of
confrontations reported each year do not seriously threaten party
rule.
As was promised today, the government has generally sought to help
companies pay off protesting workers.
At the same time, any independent leaders who try to organize
across companies or provincial lines are jailed.
One of the largest and most bitter disputes known to outsiders in
recent years took place in February in the mining town of
Yangjiazhangzi, also in Liaoning Province. Angered by corruption
and the closing of the town's main employer, a state-run molybdenum
mine, residents rioted for three days, burning cars and smashing
windows before the army moved in.
The workers at the metals factory today carried signs saying,
"Being Owed Wages Is Not a Crime," and, "Release the Workers'
Representatives," reported the Information Center for Human Rights
and Democracy in Hong Kong.
The factory in Liaoyang, a former Communist flagship that has
operated for more than 40 years, is responsible for 8,000 workers,
an employee said, including 1,300 retirees and more than 1,000 who
have been laid off as business falters.
"The workers are very angry," said Pang Li, whose father, Pang
Qingxiang, was detained. "Some haven't been paid for more than a
year, and they've tried to get answers from the government many
times."
A group petitioned City Hall for help in February, said Liu Xizhen,
the wife of Mr. Lu, who had the heart attack. "The mayor promised
to look into it," Ms. Liu, 64, said. "But we didn't hear anything
after that, and nobody received any pay. 'People don't have their
pensions. They don't have any money to see the doctor. They don't
have any money to buy food."
Her family has been especially hard hit, Ms. Liu said, because her
husband, their two sons and their wives all worked at the metals
factory. Her husband is entitled to a pension of $48 a month, which
he has not received for four months, she added, while the other
four have been laid off and have never received the $18 monthly
stipends that they are due.
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