NY Times, Mar. 15 2016 Labor Protests Multiply in China as Economy Slows, Worrying Leaders By JAVIER C. HERNÁNDEZ
GUANGZHOU, China — For nearly seven years, Li Wei rose before dawn seven days a week for his 10-hour shift at the steel plant, returning home each night soaked in sweat, the clank of heavy machinery still ringing in his ears. But last month, the 31-year-old welder stood outside the plant with hundreds of co-workers, picketing against pay cuts and singing patriotic battle hymns. Within a week, the authorities declared their strike illegal, threatening fines and imprisonment. The police descended on the plant by the hundreds, tearing down signs and ordering the protesters to go back to work. “I’ve sacrificed my life for this company,” Mr. Li told officers as they sought to disperse the workers. “How can you do this?” As China’s economy slows after more than two decades of breakneck growth, strikes and labor protests have erupted across the country. Factories, mines and other businesses are withholding wages and benefits, laying off staff or shutting down altogether. Worried about their prospects in a gloomy job market, workers are fighting back with unusual ferocity. Last week, hundreds if not thousands of angry employees of the state-owned Longmay Mining Group, the biggest coal company in northeastern China, staged one of the most politically daring protests over unpaid salaries yet, denouncing the provincial governor as he and other senior leaders gathered for an annual meeting in Beijing. China Labor Bulletin, a labor rights group based in Hong Kong, recorded more than 2,700 strikes and protests last year, more than double the number in 2014. The strife appears to have intensified in recent months, with more than 500 protests in January alone. Most demonstrations have refrained from political attacks and focused on grievances such as wage arrears, unpaid benefits like pension contributions and unsafe working conditions. President Xi Jinping, concerned about challenges to the ruling Communist Party, has responded with a methodical crackdown, quashing protests, dismantling labor rights organizations and imprisoning activists. But his government has also sought to placate workers, putting pressure on businesses to settle disputes and making billions of dollars available for welfare payments and retraining programs. The approach underlines the political dilemma that labor unrest poses for the Communist Party, which has continued to portray itself as a socialist guardian of worker’s rights even as it has embraced capitalism and welcomed tycoons into its ranks. The tide of protests appears to be cresting as Mr. Xi contemplates an enormous downsizing of China’s bloated state industries, which are producing much more steel, cement and other goods than the market needs. According to a recent study, more than three million workers could lose their jobs in the next two years if the cuts go through. The government has already announced plans to lay off 1.8 million steel and coal workers. China trimmed the state sector of more than 30 million workers during a wave of privatization and restructuring during the late 1990s and early 2000s. But the economy was booming then, creating millions of jobs in new industries. It is still growing today, but at its slowest pace in a quarter century. At the same time, Mr. Xi is grappling with a labor force that is better informed and more easily organized because of social media, and also more assertive, in part because of grass-roots rights groups that have emerged. “This is probably the thing that keeps Xi Jinping up at night,” said Eli Friedman, a scholar at Cornell University who studies Chinese labor issues. “Governments are not swimming in money the way they used to be, and there’s less room to compromise.” Here in the capital of Guangdong Province in southern China, several hundred workers at the state-owned Angang Lianzhong steel plant went on strike last month in response to a plan to decrease wages by as much as half and extend the workday to 12 hours for some employees. “Toward the sun, toward freedom!” the workers chanted one morning as they demonstrated outside, reciting a World War II-era army song. They used WeChat, a popular messaging app, to rally support and raise money to buy protest banners. In one widely shared post, they described how the authorities had tried to stop them from playing the national anthem on a loudspeaker. (Its first line is, “Rise, we who refuse to be slaves!”) After the police broke up the strike, the plant promised to delay its planned wage cuts. But several workers said they had returned to work only because they feared punishment. “I lost hope that anything would change,” said Mr. Li, the welder, adding that he was anxious about finding a new job to support his wife and son. Officials at the steel plant did not respond to requests for comment. Guangdong, which manufactures much of the world’s toys, shoes, clothes and furniture, has been a hotbed of worker discontent. In recent months, many foreign-invested factories here have relocated to central China or Southeast Asia. Some have moved without making severance or pension payments, in violation of Chinese law. Last year, the province averaged more than one labor dispute a day, according to China Labor Bulletin. Protests have been reported in every part of the country, with the strife most pronounced in the manufacturing and construction industries, which accounted for two-thirds of the demonstrations. Most of the protests last year were against private employers. But the demonstrations last week in Shuangyashan, a mining town near the Russian border in Heilongjiang Province, suggest the unrest could spread to government-owned businesses if Mr. Xi pushes ahead with efforts to overhaul the economy by reining in state industries. Miners and others there took to the streets complaining of unpaid wages after the provincial governor held up their company, Longmay, as an example of how state firms could be restructured without hurting workers. He made his remarks at the annual session of China’s legislature, the National People’s Congress. Longmay said in September that it planned to lay off 100,000 workers, eliminating about 40 percent of the work force at 42 mines. Despite rising discontent, there have been few signs that a national labor movement might emerge. The authorities have worked assiduously to block workers from joining forces. The government prohibits workers from establishing independent labor unions, instead requiring that they join only the party-controlled All-China Federation of Trade Unions. It is supposed to mediate labor disputes, but management usually chooses the workers who sit at the bargaining table. The authorities have also clamped down on social media, shutting accounts of labor activists, deleting news reports on strikes and monitoring chat forums for signs of collective action. In recent years, the nonprofit labor rights groups that have proliferated have sought to help workers negotiate contracts and maintain solidarity during strikes. The authorities had been mostly tolerant and sometimes treated them as allies in enforcing labor laws. But as worker protests have become more frequent, bold and sophisticated, state security forces have tightened their grip. In December, the authorities arrested Zeng Feiyang, one of China’s most prominent labor organizers, accusing him of “gathering a crowd to disturb social order.” Three other activists were detained as well. Mr. Zeng, 41, had orchestrated successful campaigns against influential factories and state-owned firms in Guangdong and tutored a generation of labor activists. After his arrest, state news outlets began a smear campaign, accusing him of hiring prostitutes, stealing from workers and conspiring with hostile foreign forces. In interviews, several activists said they had gone into hiding. Mr. Zeng’s center here, once a bustling meeting place for workers, now sits empty with a new security camera above its front door. Wu Guijun, a labor activist in nearby Shenzhen, said he had started warning workers against holding demonstrations, for fear that they might be arrested, too. “The environment has changed,” he said. “We need time to grow up. We can’t just die in the cradle. We have to change our strategy.” Adam Wu contributed research. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list pen-l@lists.csuchico.edu https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
