A Shenzhen-based labour rights group was forcibly closed down for organising a mass campaign aiming to collect one million signatures calling for the government to scrap the labour dispute arbitration handling fee.
Nearly 100 officers from the municipal civil affairs bureau came to the office of the Shenzhen Migrant Workers Association (shenzhen wailaigong xiehui)(http://www.szwlg.com, in Chinese) on 9 November. They searched the group's office, saying the group was not registered and was doing some "illegal activities", according to Radio Free Asia's Cantonese Service. The officers confiscated six computers and ordered the group to halt its operation.
During the Guangdong Provincial People's Congress in February this year, some delegates to the local people's congress said the handling fee of labour dispute arbitration received by the Guangdong labour authorities was too expensive and they jointly demanded that the fee should be scrapped. Since then, many labour groups in Shenzhen joined the campaign and in March they collected about 10,000 signatures from rural migrant workers asking the government to cancel the handling fee.
Because of the success of the last signature campaign, in early November the groups planned to expand the campaign, aiming to collect one million signatures. Since then, the local authorities started the crackdown on the labour group which initiated the campaign, according to the RFA report.
Zhang Zhiru, who founded the Shenzhen Migrant Workers Association, said the group has been run for about two years and its service was mainly to provide free legal advice to workers and organise recreational activities for workers. He admitted that the group was not registered because it was difficult to get the authority's recognition of their work to defend workers' rights. But he believed the crackdown was mainly related to their signature campaign. Zhang said the group would not give up the campaign because of the crackdown and they would launch it again later when the situation became less tense.
A migrant worker was quoted as saying he regretted the crackdown on the labour rights group. New York-based China Labor Watch also issued a statement condemning the crackdown.
Source: Radio Free Asia Cantonese Service (15 November 2006)
16 November 2006