Labour protests erupt in southern China Mon Apr 8, 4:38 AM ET
BEIJING (Reuters) - Labour protests over back pay and inadequate welfare have erupted in two cities in south China in a wave of worker unrest, rights groups and witnesses said on Monday.
More than 1,500 enraged migrant workers sacked by a bankrupt toy factory in the city of Dongguan staged protests over the weekend to demand back pay, the U.S.-based group China Labour Watch said.
Demonstrations in Dongguan, 50 km (30 miles) from Guangzhou, flared after the Shuihe Electronics Factory told its remaining employees to pack and leave immediately, the group said in a statement.
On Monday, around 1,000 retired workers blocked two roads in front of a cash-strapped state-owned steel factory in the southwestern province of Guizhou demanding better welfare support, a Hong Kong-based rights group and witnesses said.
The protests in Guangdong and Guizhou add to a string of recent disturbances by large crowds of jobless and retirees seething over unpaid pensions, overdue wages and inadequate medical insurance.
The protests have inflamed concerns over social stability in the run-up to a Communist Party leadership change late this year.
Tens of thousands took to the streets last month in the northeastern "rust belt" city of Liaoyang and the oil town of Daqing. In Beijing, retired auto workers claiming years of unpaid benefits blocked traffic last month along a main thoroughfare.
COFFERS EMPTIED, OWNER GONE
Those protests cast a shadow over China's efforts to reform its ailing state sector. By contrast, Shuihe Electronics was owned by a Hong Kong company and made toys for multinational firms such as Mattel, MGA Entertainment and Wal-Mart, China Labour Watch spokesman Li Qiang told Reuters.
He said around 10 toy workers were injured during clashes with the factory's security guards on Sunday after between 1,500 and 2,000 people swarmed the factory compound demanding wages unpaid since February.
Local officials and police denied the clash had happened and said the toy factory was trying to resolve the dispute.
"There was no protest, no clash. The factory is being taken over by a new boss and about 2,000 workers were being paid off," a Dongguan police officer told Reuters.
"All of them should have been paid off by Monday, with no trouble," he said.
But a labour bureau official said the factory's coffers were empty and its owner had skipped town.
"I heard the owner has gone missing," the Dongguan labour bureau official said.
He said the sacked workers were mostly migrants from impoverished inland provinces of Sichuan, Henan, Jiangxi and Anhui. They worked 19 hours a day, seven days a week with dangerous chemicals for less than 20 cents an hour.
Employees faced instant dismissal or fines ranging from five to 200 yuan (70 cents to $24) for such offences as chatting, napping on the job or requesting overtime pay, Li said.
The lay-offs were the last of several waves of job cuts at the plant but it was not clear why it went bust.
STEEL WORKERS BLOCK ROADS
In Guiyang, capital of Guizhou, some 1,000 retired workers blocked two main roads in front of the Guiyang Steel Factory, protesting over plummeting pension payments, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said.
"They are sitting outside but I do not know how many of them there are," a worker at the factory told Reuters.
"With only 150 yuan ($18) per month, how could they live and what choice do they have?" she said. "I can only make 400 to 500 yuan ($48-$60) a month, which is enough for raising only one person. What about my family then?"
The Information Centre said some 1,000 of the factory's 5,000 retired workers participated in Monday's protest.
The state-owned steel firm, which now has some 8,000 workers, has been in financial straits since last April and had paid its workers only 80 per cent of their wages, it said.
"We are handling the situation," a factory official said, but declined to elaborate.
The protests in Liaoyang, Liaoning province, petered out last week after authorities formally charged four leaders with illegally gathering and demonstrating.
In Daqing, heavy rain, cold weather and snowfalls have put a dampener on five-week-old protests against state-owned giant PetroChina, a local source said.
"When the weather clears up, I think they will go on with the demonstrations," he said.