Police and Thugs Team up to Enforce Privatisation
Sacked workers from the recently privatised Changchun Shuangyang District Baijiu Factory (a liquor-producing plant in Jilin province) have been attacked by armed men for the second time in recent weeks. This time it was the police who forcibly broke up their protest against fraud and poverty. The protest was staged outside local government offices on September 4, 2001.
Changchun is a large industrial city in north-east China that has been hit hard by the restructuring of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). All of the 288 workers from the liquor factory were sacked after it was sold off, at 25% of its value, to businessman Gao Xin. Gao planned to use the land for a property development scheme. The initial deal gave the sacked workers a Rmb 15,000 settlement. However, Gao has since said that he would only pay the workers an annual hardship allowance of Rmb 300. According to one participant in the protest, this figure is way below the minimum annual hardship allowance of Rmb 840, stipulated in local government regulations. "We havent seen a single cent," he added.
After employees realised they had been swindled by the privatisation deal, they began protesting outside the factory gates last week. However, Gao hired more than 30 thugs who attacked and intimidated the workers. On September 4th, they took their protest to the government offices carrying banners which read "Decent government officials should give us people justice" and "We want to eat". Over 60 police pushed, kicked and punched the workers and their families and tore down the banners. Seven people were injured and one had to be taken to hospital. CLB has been unable to gather further information about the injured worker's condition.
Unemployment in China has continued to rise as the privatisation policy bites. According to official sources, SOEs implementing restructuring laid off 7.69 million workers in the first half of 2001. Only 790,000 of them found new jobs during the same period.
(HK: Mingpao 05/09/01, SCMP 05/09/01)
Sacked workers from the recently privatised Changchun Shuangyang District Baijiu Factory (a liquor-producing plant in Jilin province) have been attacked by armed men for the second time in recent weeks. This time it was the police who forcibly broke up their protest against fraud and poverty. The protest was staged outside local government offices on September 4, 2001.
Changchun is a large industrial city in north-east China that has been hit hard by the restructuring of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). All of the 288 workers from the liquor factory were sacked after it was sold off, at 25% of its value, to businessman Gao Xin. Gao planned to use the land for a property development scheme. The initial deal gave the sacked workers a Rmb 15,000 settlement. However, Gao has since said that he would only pay the workers an annual hardship allowance of Rmb 300. According to one participant in the protest, this figure is way below the minimum annual hardship allowance of Rmb 840, stipulated in local government regulations. "We havent seen a single cent," he added.
After employees realised they had been swindled by the privatisation deal, they began protesting outside the factory gates last week. However, Gao hired more than 30 thugs who attacked and intimidated the workers. On September 4th, they took their protest to the government offices carrying banners which read "Decent government officials should give us people justice" and "We want to eat". Over 60 police pushed, kicked and punched the workers and their families and tore down the banners. Seven people were injured and one had to be taken to hospital. CLB has been unable to gather further information about the injured worker's condition.
Unemployment in China has continued to rise as the privatisation policy bites. According to official sources, SOEs implementing restructuring laid off 7.69 million workers in the first half of 2001. Only 790,000 of them found new jobs during the same period.
(HK: Mingpao 05/09/01, SCMP 05/09/01)