Workers

Labour unrest on the rise in Panyu, Guangdong Province – at least thirteen workers detained, scores beaten.

Protest on 6 March. Photo copyright: nddaily.com

On 6 March the ITUC protested to the Municipal Government of Guangzhou, in China’s Guangdong Province, against the arrest and sentencing on February 13 of five workers from a shoe making factory in Panyu district on charges of illegal assembly and demonstration.

It also criticized the detention and sentencing to various terms of administrative detention on charges of disturbing public order of three workers from a handbag factory and a further five workers from an undisclosed factory.

The ITUC original letter urged the Guangzhou government to provide full information as to the whereabouts of the thirteen detained workers along with clear details of their alleged crimes and demands their immediate and unconditional release. Noting that they have been arrested and detained solely for the peaceful exercise of their right to freedom of expression and association, the ITUC says it may consider lodging a formal complaint against China at the ILO’s Committee on Freedom of Association if they are not released.

We have since heard that on 6 March it there was another protest in Panyu – by around 4,000 workers from the Casio Electronic Factory which was dispersed by around 1,000 police, riot police and other security personnel.

IHLO has also learned that five of the original thirteen detained workers (those from the shoe factory) have been charged with criminal offences of illegal assembly and demonstration and as such could face up to seven years imprisonment.

It is disturbing to note the current wave of repressive methods taken by the Panyu authorities in regard to the growing worker unrest in the area. Panyu is a relatively rural part of Guangdong province which has seen growing worker unrest - over the past two weeks, several workers’ disputes have taken place – and the authorities are well known for their relatively strong-handed tactics in dealing with worker protests.

Background

On 28 February a public sentencing rally was held in a main square in Panyu Township which announced the detention of thirteen workers to varying terms of administrative detention. Three workers from a handbag factory and a further five workers from an undisclosed factory were detained and sentenced to various terms of administrative detention on charges of disturbing public order. Five workers from a shoe factory also appeared at the rally and it is now known that they were charged with illegal assembly and demonstration. They are currently in detention and may face criminal trial.

According to the Panyu Daily 29 February those arrested include shoe factory workers: Shi X, Peng X Cui (female), Shi X Zhi, Wang X and Zhang X Yin; Handbag factory workers:  Yin X Ming, Li X Zheng, Hu X Kuan and five  workers from another factory; Wu X Yong, Wang X Jun (sentenced to ten days detention), Zou X Hua, Ma X (female), Hu X Xing (sentenced to seven days detention).

Case details

1. Casio Electronics Factory

According to media reports, some 3 to 4,000 workers from the Casio Electronics Factory protested outside their factory on the morning of 6March 2008. We understand that the workers were dispersed by around 1,000 armed riot-police, and other public security officials. Some 20 workers including women workers were reportedly injured during the clashes.

The Casio labour dispute reportedly began on 5 March when the company informed workers that the basic wages would be raised from 580 Yuan to 690 Yuan in accordance with new regulations. However, workers then discovered that the company simultaneously cut their monthly bonus from between 85 and 200 yuan down to between 5 and 60 Yuan.

Several workers were taken away by police but it is not known if they were later detained or released – several photographs of the incident show at least two women workers were escorted away by police.  

2. Shoe Factory Protest

Returning from their New Year holiday on 13 February (the seventh day of the Chinese New year) 700 shoe producing workers found that they were locked outside the factory premises. The factory owner had closed down the factory and sold the equipment during the New Year holyday. Missing wages, amounting to some 2,000 yuan (approx. 180) per worker, as well as social insurance and others insurance payments, had not been paid by the employer, for periods extending from nine months to sometimes up to 10 years.

To protest against the closing, around 400 workers began to walk from the factory to the Guangzhou Municipal government offices in an attempt to publicize their plight. The police stopped the march and detained around 50 workers. Five of those were then formally arrested and detained on criminal charges. The workers have been order to vacate their living place within 24h and remain to day without any place to live.

3. Two other factory cases

Information regarding the three workers at a handbag factory in Panyu and the other unnamed Panyu factory remains scant but the ITUC understands that the three handbag factory workers were charged with “seriously disturbing” production at the factor after they and others organized a protest outside the factory gates demanding pay rise and an end to unfair working hour computations.

The remaining five workers from an unnamed factory were detained and arrested in connection with a peaceful demonstration of some 90 workers which blocked traffic in Panyu.

“If your government observed the right to freedom of association and allowed workers easier access to redress in labour disputes then the intractability and scale of industrial unrest currently observed in China would be greatly lessened” writes ITUC General Secretary Guy Ryder in his letter to the Guangzhou authorities.

The administrative methods of deprivation of liberty should “be abolished or at the very least subject to greater judicial oversight”, also writes Guy Ryder.

Link to ITUC Letter

IHLO 7 March 2008