In a similar dispute to the Neutrogena workers, long-term agency workers at China Unicom in Dazhou, Sichuan protested at the company office after their contracts were terminated as part of the telecom giant’s move to reduce its reliance on agency employment.
When China Unicom announced plans to outsource staff in Dazhou, the workers requested negotiations with management. China Unicom reportedly terminated their contracts. Many employees at China Unicom had worked there for more than ten years and demanded to sign permanent contracts directly with the company.
Unicom workers across China have organized and publicized their campaigns on Sina Weibo, and the hashtag “China Unicom Workers' Rights Defence League,” used by workers from Henan, Shandong, Liaoning and other provinces, has been viewed more than three million times.
Unicom has relied heavily on agency labour in the past but new government rules designed to cap the number of agency workers in any one enterprise to ten percent has prompted the use of outsourcing instead.