As China gets ready to celebrate Labour Day on 1 May, news has come out that a democratically elected trade unionist - Liu Yongyi (刘泳仪) - has been fired for pro-worker activism. Ironically, Liu didn’t work at a foreign enterprise or a sweatshop, but rather, at the Guangdong Union Hotel - a hotel run by the Guangdong Province Federation of Trade Unions Industries Company (广东省总工会实业公司).
According to Southern Daily (南方都市报), who ran a story about Liu Yongyi on 22 April 2009, hotel management claimed that Liu was a bad manager, had poor character, and always caused trouble. However, interviews with workers contradicted this account, claiming that she was a good person who fought for workers’ rights.
In a sense this story is nothing new. The ACFTU has struggled to represent workers’ interests at the enterprise level, as CLB’s latest report “Protecting Workers’ Rights or Serving the Party: the Way Forward for China’s Trade Unions” makes clear. This story also bears a strong resemblance to the case of Gao Haitao, a trade unionist at the Nanchang Wal-Mart store who was fired in 2008 for taking issue with a few of the clauses in the top-down pro forma collective contracts that the ACFTU signed on workers’ behalf. When workers are willing and able to do the heavy lifting, higher-level ACFTU can sometimes hamper worker activism.
Below is the 22 April 2009 Southern Daily article translation:
Because She Was Fighting for Workers Rights, Guangdong Union Hotel Union Chairman is Fired
Many workers state that she was a good person, very honest, and she was fired for fighting for workers rights and interests; the manager of the hotel states that she had poor character, was seeking private gains through public means, and she poisoned the workplace atmosphere.
By: Ma Xiaoliu, Nanfang Daily Reporter Yang Dazheng, Intern Zhang Xuebin
52-year-old Liu Yongyi is a woman from Guangdong. In the last nine years, she’s been the Guangdong Union Hotel Union Chairman (广东工会大厦工会主席), and a Party branch committee member. On April 30, 2009, she’ll have no position at the hotel whatsoever, because the Guangdong Union Hotel unilaterally severed labour relations with her.
Guangdong Union Hotel Manager Jiang Lingquan stated that Liu Yongqi’s character is terrible and she uses power for private gain. But Guangdong Union Hotel’s many employees stated that she’s honest, and she has consistently fought for workers’ rights and interests, and her dismissal is 100 percent related to her rights protection activities.
Elected Chairman For Two Consecutive Terms
Liu Yongyi stated, in 2000 she started work at Guangdong Union Hotel and immediately established a union, and she was elected chairman by the employees, a term that lasted five years. Then in June of 2006, she was elected chairman once again. Before 2006, only Guangdong Union Hotel’s employees from Guangdong Province could get access to medial insurance, and furthermore, you had to be an administrative employee to qualify, of which there were only ten such people. But through Liu Yongyi’s hard work, the general manager agreed that employees from elsewhere could also buy medical insurance.
In 2007, prices started rising for all sorts of goods, and employees sought Liu Yongyi for help, wanting her to ask the hotel’s leaders to apply for a housing accumulation fund. Again: it was another year of struggle, and in March 2008 the hotel’s general manager agreed to assist in buying a housing accumulation fund. Liu Yongyi said, at this point relations between her and the hotel leaders were pretty friendly.
Liu Gets Dismissed and Has Office Sealed Off
In August of 2008, the Guangdong Union Hotel general manager retired, and a new manager surnamed Mo came, and lasted four months, and at that time many employees started arguing back and forth with the hotel over unpaid overtime that had accumulated over the years. On 16 December 2008, the Guangdong Province Federation of Trade Unions announced that Jiang Lingquan would take charge at the Guangdong Union Hotel as the general manager.
Liu Yongyi said that after Jiang Lingquan was appointed as the new general manager, in his capacity as the new leader, he gave a speech saying that employees had gone to the labour department to seek arbitration recently, and the reason was because Liu Yongyi’s work was not done well, and her management wasn’t good, and it was decided to temporarily suspend her from her position as personnel and administration manager. This decision caused Liu to strongly protest the action, asking Jiang Lingquan for evidence (of her wrong doing), and asking him to explain whether he was transferring her, or whether he was giving her a disciplinary punishment. But Jiang refused to explain.
On 24 December, Liu Yongyi’s office, work desk, and files were sealed off. Liu Yongyi said that after her office was sealed off, she continued to come to work and leave work just like before, and she kept on swiping her time card just like before, every day coming to the hotel’s lobby to sit and work. She did this until 30 December when her office was unsealed.
Two Other Employees Get Fired
On 1 April, a notice bearing the official stamp of the Guangdong Union Hotel landed in Liu Yongyi’s hands, “A Notice Regarding the Severing of Labour Relations with Liu Yongyi”, it said that her labour contract had ended on 1 Septemebr 2008, and it had been decided to cut off labour relations with her, asking her to do the procedures for leaving her position at the hotel office by 30 April.
Liu Yongyi said that the reason the hotel did this had to do with her advocating for carrying out social benefits at the organization. Liu Yongyi hopes that the Guangdong Union Hotel will explain why they severed her labour relations, and if she violated any regulations, they should come up with the evidence. If Jiang Lingquan doesn’t have any evidence proving that she made any mistakes in her work, then the severing of her labour relations was illegal, and she hopes that she can return to her original position.
Your correspondent has learned that the Guangdong Union Hotel is a three star hotel, belonging to Guangdong Province Federation of Trade Unions Industries Company. From one of the hotel’s employees, your correspondent found out that there are now two other union committee members one surnamed Wei and another surnamed Chen whose labour contracts were severed after they tried to help workers obtain their overtimes salaries. Later that night, your correspondent called Wei and Chen and confirmed that this was indeed the case.
The General Manager: Her Character’s Got Some Problems
Last night, your correspondent called the Guangdong Union Hotel general manager Jiang Lingquan. Jiang Lingquan stated that Liu Yongyi’s character has some problems, her relations with the former general manager were terrible, and that she used her union chairman’s position to seek selfish gains. At the workplace she argued everyday and caused trouble everyday, “(the way we dealt with her) doesn’t count as getting revenge, it was an organizational action, not a personal action”.
Jiang Lingquan said, “we at the provincial federation of trade unions want to explain to the Guangdong media: last year the Party committee decided that I would come to this hotel, precisely because she had poisoned the atmosphere. If you have free time you can do an on the spot investigation by going to our employees to understand this for yourself. Many employees didn’t like her”.
Employees: She Treated Employees Really Well
Yesterday at 4pm, your correspondent went to the Guangdong Union Hotel to interview people. Many employees who were interviewed said Liu Yongyi was a good person, very honest, and if she was let go, it was certainly 100 percent related to her fighting for workers’ interests.
Employees said that the union chairperson position is decided through hotel union members voting in an election, therefore saying that “Liu Yongyi was causing trouble at the hotel”, “her character wasn’t good”, is just purely fabricated, it’s the hotel leaders who are the problem. One female employee said, if the leaders wanted to fire her, we workers also want to do one thing, that’s to hopefully not see her fired; or else afterwards, there’ll be no one to speak up for the workers.
According to Southern Daily (南方都市报), who ran a story about Liu Yongyi on 22 April 2009, hotel management claimed that Liu was a bad manager, had poor character, and always caused trouble. However, interviews with workers contradicted this account, claiming that she was a good person who fought for workers’ rights.
In a sense this story is nothing new. The ACFTU has struggled to represent workers’ interests at the enterprise level, as CLB’s latest report “Protecting Workers’ Rights or Serving the Party: the Way Forward for China’s Trade Unions” makes clear. This story also bears a strong resemblance to the case of Gao Haitao, a trade unionist at the Nanchang Wal-Mart store who was fired in 2008 for taking issue with a few of the clauses in the top-down pro forma collective contracts that the ACFTU signed on workers’ behalf. When workers are willing and able to do the heavy lifting, higher-level ACFTU can sometimes hamper worker activism.
Below is the 22 April 2009 Southern Daily article translation:
Because She Was Fighting for Workers Rights, Guangdong Union Hotel Union Chairman is Fired
Many workers state that she was a good person, very honest, and she was fired for fighting for workers rights and interests; the manager of the hotel states that she had poor character, was seeking private gains through public means, and she poisoned the workplace atmosphere.
By: Ma Xiaoliu, Nanfang Daily Reporter Yang Dazheng, Intern Zhang Xuebin
52-year-old Liu Yongyi is a woman from Guangdong. In the last nine years, she’s been the Guangdong Union Hotel Union Chairman (广东工会大厦工会主席), and a Party branch committee member. On April 30, 2009, she’ll have no position at the hotel whatsoever, because the Guangdong Union Hotel unilaterally severed labour relations with her.
Guangdong Union Hotel Manager Jiang Lingquan stated that Liu Yongqi’s character is terrible and she uses power for private gain. But Guangdong Union Hotel’s many employees stated that she’s honest, and she has consistently fought for workers’ rights and interests, and her dismissal is 100 percent related to her rights protection activities.
Elected Chairman For Two Consecutive Terms
Liu Yongyi stated, in 2000 she started work at Guangdong Union Hotel and immediately established a union, and she was elected chairman by the employees, a term that lasted five years. Then in June of 2006, she was elected chairman once again. Before 2006, only Guangdong Union Hotel’s employees from Guangdong Province could get access to medial insurance, and furthermore, you had to be an administrative employee to qualify, of which there were only ten such people. But through Liu Yongyi’s hard work, the general manager agreed that employees from elsewhere could also buy medical insurance.
In 2007, prices started rising for all sorts of goods, and employees sought Liu Yongyi for help, wanting her to ask the hotel’s leaders to apply for a housing accumulation fund. Again: it was another year of struggle, and in March 2008 the hotel’s general manager agreed to assist in buying a housing accumulation fund. Liu Yongyi said, at this point relations between her and the hotel leaders were pretty friendly.
Liu Gets Dismissed and Has Office Sealed Off
In August of 2008, the Guangdong Union Hotel general manager retired, and a new manager surnamed Mo came, and lasted four months, and at that time many employees started arguing back and forth with the hotel over unpaid overtime that had accumulated over the years. On 16 December 2008, the Guangdong Province Federation of Trade Unions announced that Jiang Lingquan would take charge at the Guangdong Union Hotel as the general manager.
Liu Yongyi said that after Jiang Lingquan was appointed as the new general manager, in his capacity as the new leader, he gave a speech saying that employees had gone to the labour department to seek arbitration recently, and the reason was because Liu Yongyi’s work was not done well, and her management wasn’t good, and it was decided to temporarily suspend her from her position as personnel and administration manager. This decision caused Liu to strongly protest the action, asking Jiang Lingquan for evidence (of her wrong doing), and asking him to explain whether he was transferring her, or whether he was giving her a disciplinary punishment. But Jiang refused to explain.
On 24 December, Liu Yongyi’s office, work desk, and files were sealed off. Liu Yongyi said that after her office was sealed off, she continued to come to work and leave work just like before, and she kept on swiping her time card just like before, every day coming to the hotel’s lobby to sit and work. She did this until 30 December when her office was unsealed.
Two Other Employees Get Fired
On 1 April, a notice bearing the official stamp of the Guangdong Union Hotel landed in Liu Yongyi’s hands, “A Notice Regarding the Severing of Labour Relations with Liu Yongyi”, it said that her labour contract had ended on 1 Septemebr 2008, and it had been decided to cut off labour relations with her, asking her to do the procedures for leaving her position at the hotel office by 30 April.
Liu Yongyi said that the reason the hotel did this had to do with her advocating for carrying out social benefits at the organization. Liu Yongyi hopes that the Guangdong Union Hotel will explain why they severed her labour relations, and if she violated any regulations, they should come up with the evidence. If Jiang Lingquan doesn’t have any evidence proving that she made any mistakes in her work, then the severing of her labour relations was illegal, and she hopes that she can return to her original position.
Your correspondent has learned that the Guangdong Union Hotel is a three star hotel, belonging to Guangdong Province Federation of Trade Unions Industries Company. From one of the hotel’s employees, your correspondent found out that there are now two other union committee members one surnamed Wei and another surnamed Chen whose labour contracts were severed after they tried to help workers obtain their overtimes salaries. Later that night, your correspondent called Wei and Chen and confirmed that this was indeed the case.
The General Manager: Her Character’s Got Some Problems
Last night, your correspondent called the Guangdong Union Hotel general manager Jiang Lingquan. Jiang Lingquan stated that Liu Yongyi’s character has some problems, her relations with the former general manager were terrible, and that she used her union chairman’s position to seek selfish gains. At the workplace she argued everyday and caused trouble everyday, “(the way we dealt with her) doesn’t count as getting revenge, it was an organizational action, not a personal action”.
Jiang Lingquan said, “we at the provincial federation of trade unions want to explain to the Guangdong media: last year the Party committee decided that I would come to this hotel, precisely because she had poisoned the atmosphere. If you have free time you can do an on the spot investigation by going to our employees to understand this for yourself. Many employees didn’t like her”.
Employees: She Treated Employees Really Well
Yesterday at 4pm, your correspondent went to the Guangdong Union Hotel to interview people. Many employees who were interviewed said Liu Yongyi was a good person, very honest, and if she was let go, it was certainly 100 percent related to her fighting for workers’ interests.
Employees said that the union chairperson position is decided through hotel union members voting in an election, therefore saying that “Liu Yongyi was causing trouble at the hotel”, “her character wasn’t good”, is just purely fabricated, it’s the hotel leaders who are the problem. One female employee said, if the leaders wanted to fire her, we workers also want to do one thing, that’s to hopefully not see her fired; or else afterwards, there’ll be no one to speak up for the workers.