Du Hongqi and his wife, Li Tingying 李廷英, both workers at an artillery factory [Mingguang Instrument Plant ] run by the South China Industries Group, were detained for independent trade-union organizing activities on 24 November 2003. The arms factory had been facing bankruptcy and was taken over by another enterprise which was planning to convert it to civilian production. Seven hundred out of a total of 1,500 employees were promptly laid off. Du and Li had already founded an unofficial trade union in September 2003 to fight for better working conditions and had organized several petition and protest actions. After the mass lay-offs, their union helped to voice the workers’ demands for compensation 10,000 Yuan per person as well as local government aid to find new jobs. Du Hongqi and Li Tingying were subsequently detained by the police, and Du was formally arrested on 8 December 2003 on the charge of “gathering a crowd to disturb social order.” On 18 October 2004, he was tried and sentenced to three years’ imprisonment. He will be due for release in Oct 2006. The fate of Li Tingying is not known. According to media reports, although Du Hongqi was the leader and organizer of two protests at his factory, it was for the second protest in September and October 2003 (which lasted for 15 days) that he was convicted.
June 2005
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