Photograph: humphery / Shutterstock.com
Letter from the Editors
This month, China Labour Bulletin warmly welcomes our new Deputy Director, Richard Tsoi (蔡耀昌). Richard is well-known in Hong Kong for his decades of involvement in civil society and support of the rights of various interest groups. It would be impossible to summarise his vast experience here in our newsletter, but most recently, Richard was for fifteen years a community organizer with Hong Kong’s Society for Community Organization, which advocates for the rights of vulnerable groups in the territory.
In his new role at CLB, Richard will work alongside Executive Director Han Dongfang to manage the organization’s programs and daily operations, with a special focus on CLB’s expanding work on how supply chain practices affect workers in the region.
We asked Richard to share some thoughts with you about his joining CLB and the importance of China’s workers’ experience:
China’s workers have been struggling through all kinds of labour rights deprivations. Now, the “world's factory” is being decentralised across in the region, as investors seek cheaper labour.In the supply chain, the labour practices are unfortunately not much improved or changed, and thus China’s experience is useful for workers worldwide. The exchange of experiences to face power struggles is a union target.
In the whole global supply chain system, to defend China workers’ rights should be a global responsibility including the involvement of companies and even governments from developed countries.
Thanks for reading!
CLB Editors
What We’re Focusing On
20 demands. In a developing situation, workers at an electronic music equipment factory in Zhongshan, Guangdong province, are out on strike this week, listing 20 separate demands of Zhongshan Eurotec Electronics Co. Ltd., aka Music Tribe, that produces for Behringer in Germany. Workers are particularly peeved by repeated security checks that have them waiting in long lines out in rain before clocking in. After the factory opened up more security channels to speed up the process, workers are still demanding wage increases. Management sent a notice that striking workers will receive demerits that could lead to their termination after three write-ups. China Labour Bulletin urges for workers’ voices to be heard in future discussions at the factory on working conditions, wages and other demands. Read more: Off the clock: Zhongshan electronic music equipment factory workers strike over security measures.
40-hour work week. When electronics factory workers in Zhongshan, Guangdong province, complained online that their hours were reduced, the backlash was encapsulated by a comment that said, “It’s so hard to satisfy you guys.” Do factory workers want more hours or fewer? The answer is complicated, as the online discussion revealed. In the end, factory workers identified that a low minimum wage and a system that is based on overtime pay for a liveable wage holds them back. Read more: "We will finally do something brave": Zhongshan electronics factory workers protest over uncertain fate.
296 million migrant workers. We updated our popular explainer on migrant workers and their children after 2022 annual data on this population was officially released. In 2022, the total number of migrant workers in China reached 295.62 million, accounting for more than 30 percent of the working population. The pandemic created new patterns, with a drop in the migrant worker population for the first time in 2020. The number of migrant workers has risen again since then, but workers are staying closer to home. About three-quarters of migrant workers in 2022 stayed in the same province where their household is registered. For much more data on migrant worker demographics, the industries in which they work, average wages, and effects of their status on families and children, read more: What You Need to Know About Workers in China: Migrant workers and their children.
Worker Voices
Electronics factory workers in Zhongshan, Guangdong province, spoke out against being strung along by their employer:
This is like in a relationship with a boyfriend. He wants to break up with you, but he does not say it. Instead, he just holds back and treats you indifferently, until you cannot take it and you bring it up yourself… We deserve a decent breakup.
Workers said they were never told about what would happen to them as the Zhongshan Wing Ming Electric Co. got “consolidated” into a new facility in Guangxi province, as part of a plan by U.S.-listed Bel Fuse, for which they produced magnetic components. Workers were not offered to transfer to Guangxi, which posted ads to recruit 1,000 workers.
The Wing Ming workers first faced reduced hours and noticed that equipment was being transferred to Guangxi in May, and then they were encouraged to “voluntarily resign” in June, before a consolidation plan was finalised in July.
In the midst of the confusion, another worker said:
When will the factory finally inform us? How long does the factory want to drag this out and not tell us the truth?
Some workers did hold out until the end, mainly for the required compensation under China’s Labour Contract Law. But that did not come, either, and some workers were even owed years’ worth of unpaid mandatory social security benefits.
A third worker posted:
We went to the government for help, but they are not helping. No one is enforcing the law. The labour bureau stands with the factory, even.
This sad tale is not unlike what is happening at other factories across China, as the sector sees a wave of relocations and shutdowns. But as CLB is documenting, workers are not taking this lying down.
Strike Action
New annual high in August. CLB’s Strike Map recorded 186 worker protests in August, a new high for the year. The construction industry saw almost triple the incidents compared to July, with 117 strikes and protests, making up a whopping 60 percent of total incidents collected. The industry typically makes up 40-50 percent of the whole. In the manufacturing sector, our map collected 38 incidents (20 percent) and in the transportation industry, incidents accounted for 17 percent. Services came in at 5 percent.
Unpaid wages at major real estate company projects. China’s property market is in trouble, leading to negative labour effects on construction workers. Major real estate giants in China are recording losses in the first half of this year. CLB’s Strike Map logged workers asking for unpaid wages at major private real estate developers including Country Garden, Sunac Holdings, Poly Real Estate and Greenland Holdings. Nine cases involved Country Garden properties in Guangdong, Liaoning, and Henan provinces. On 24 August, a property owner in Shantou, Guangdong province, said, “I saw workers asking for wages in the sales office, saying they could not get paid their salaries owed by the contractor. They stopped working and did not complete the project.” On 31 August, workers at another Country Garden project in Shantou also protested over unpaid wages. CLB’s Workers’ Calls-for-Help Map also recorded five incidents of construction workers posting messages online to seek government attention on their wage arrears cases. In one case involving Country Garden, the local administrative departments held meetings with companies to set deadlines for workers’ wage payments. But workers followed up after the deadline to say they still hadn’t been paid or even been contacted by the companies.
Supermarkets shut down and owe wages. CLB’s Strike Map recorded three incidents of supermarket closures that have led to workers’ wage arrears in August, at Carrefour and BBK (Better Life Commercial). Carrefour workers in Chongqing protested at the store on 25 August. An online video shows more than a dozen workers holding up paper signs with one character each, together reading, “Suning Carrefour, give me back my hard-earned money!” In 2019, domestic retailer Suning took ownership of French retailer Carrefour’s China operations, and Suning recently reported that Carrefour’s business is affected by the slowdown in consumer demand and competition from online group buying platforms. Suning’s half-year report states that 106 Carrefour stores were closed already in 2023. In Hunan province on 19 August, dozens of BBK workers in Xiangtan knelt down to ask for wages, and videos show them in front of a line of police. On 30 August, BBK workers in Xiangtan threatened to jump from the building if they weren’t paid, and police and emergency personnel arrived at the scene. BBK is facing revenue declines and a net loss. In 2022, BBK closed 139 stores, with 65 more shutdowns in the first half of this year.
Safety First
Deadly summer dining season. On 21 June, the eve of China’s Dragon Boat Festival, 31 people were killed and seven injured while dining in a restaurant. A liquefied petroleum gas leak and explosion at the Fuyang BBQ restaurant in Yinchuan, Ningxia, received international attention.
From June to August 2023, the CLB’s Workplace Accident Map collected nine gas-related accidents. Although our map can only gather a fraction of the total number of accidents each year, its data can be an indicator of trends. For example, in the first half of 2023, our map did not collect a single gas-related accident, leading us to investigate further about this summer’s incidents.
According to the China Gas Association’s 2022 annual report, last year there were 123 industrial and commercial gas accidents resulting in 28 deaths and 153 injuries. Among them, 104 (85 percent) were in the catering industry, accounting for all of the annual 28 deaths and 143 (93 percent) of the injuries. The report’s data also shows that summer is the high season for gas accidents in restaurants, due to the seasonal activities of the restaurant industry.
Contributing causes of restaurant gas accidents are:
- Lack of safety awareness among restaurant owners and staff operating in and around gas equipment;
- Inadequate regulation by gas companies in the course of supplying products and services;
- Dangerous shortcuts due to the high cost of fuel and following safety measures;
- Energy transition from coal to natural gas has led to overlooking dangers of the less-popular liquified petroleum.
CLB researchers conducted a search of websites belonging to China’s Ministry of Emergency Management, revealing that 126 out of 165 results related to gas accidents are from after the Yinchuan explosion. This frenzy to implement gas-related safety inspections is a welcome step, but one-off inspections have limitations in ensuring everyday safety. Frontline workers should know best of potential risks. CLB recommends that China’s official union - whose mandate is to represent workers - could be called on to play a role in implementing national initiatives to prevent accidents and ensure workplaces are safe for workers and the public alike.
CLB in the News
In this Nikkei Asia article about China’s manufacturing sector, CLB’s researcher Aidan Chau was quoted extensively. The article provides an overview of CLB’s Strike Map and how our organization uses the data collected there to learn about the specific issues affecting workers and how broader economic changes are having an effect on particular industries and regions.
Chau said electronics and apparel are the most vulnerable to slowdowns in international trade... "Most [garment] workers are women in their 30s and 40s and they have worked at the same place for years," Chau said. "The recent layoffs have largely affected this group."
The problems aren’t limited to worker layoffs:
When factories in China are in trouble, Chau added, they usually do not close down immediately. Instead, they delay wages, borrow more money and hope for trade to warm up.
CLB will continue to cover worker rights challenges in this dynamic sector.