Thousands of workers strike at Shaanxi textile factory
No mainland media have covered the protest and city newspapers have been told to stay away.
Hong Kong (AsiaNews/SCMP) More than 1,000 protesters continued to block a cotton factory in Xianyang (Shaanxi province, central China), yesterday as a dispute over prospective layoff compensation entered a second week.
The crowd, which started to assemble on Tuesday last week, has shut off the factory. Up to 40 company officials and workers are being held in the building.
The protest stems from the recent acquisition of the No 7 cotton works in Xianyang, originally run by the Tianwang Group, by Hong Kong's China Resources Group, which is listed in Hong Kong, New York and London but largely run by mainland Chinese. The factory was formerly known as the Xianyang Number Seven Textile Factory.
One trapped worker, named only as Mr Yin, said as many as 10,000 protesters, including workers and their relatives, had gathered in front of the factory gate at one point.
One employee who had stopped working said the demonstration had continued despite the rain. He said thousands of police had been deployed to monitor the group and maintain order.
Mr Yin said workers were dissatisfied with the new employer's initial request that the 5,000 employees undergo a new probationary period of three to six months. The salary offered for the probation period was only slightly more than a government living allowance in Xianyang, Mr Yin said (about 30-40 yuan per month)
The protesters are also dissatisfied with the compensation offered by the new company to about 1,000 workers to be made redundant after the acquisition.
Mr Yin said the workers were told China Resources was a state-controlled firm. "If [China Resources] is seen as a state enterprise, they will not be required to compensate us for those years we worked for the firm before the merger," he said.
A spokeswoman for China Resources in Hong Kong, yesterday said the dispute was over and had not involved the company. She would not comment on whether China Resources intended to lay off any staff from the factory.
But workers rejected suggestions the issue was settled. "The protest is over? Then why am I still trapped in this factory?" Mr Yin asked.
No mainland media have covered the protest and city newspapers have been told to stay away.
Neither the government nor China Resources adequately consulted the workers over labour issues. "There is no trade union in our factory. They don't speak for us. We went on strike spontaneously and organized ourselves," one worker who refused to be named said.
Worker unrest in China has been growing over the last 15 years as the government implements market economic reforms in state-run enterprises that have resulted in widespread layoffs and unemployment. According to the China labour bulletin in the country there are thousands of demonstrations every year.
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12/08/2020 16:50
02/09/2021 13:35
