Working Conditions
The Truth behind the Gems
Interview with Yang Renping (Lucky Gems) and Feng Xingzhong
(Ko Ngar Factory)
15 December 2005
In December 2005 two silicosis affected workers from the jewellery
industry came to Hong Kong to meet with unions and NGOs and to highlight
their struggle for compensation and official acknowledgment of their
plight. IHLO managed to talk to these two of the most outspoken
and brave workers. This is a translation of the interview. More
details about the two men appear at the bottom of the interview.
[For
more information on the cases of these jewellery workers please
click here]
What have you been doing since the first time you came to Hong
Kong to protest in February 2005?
Yang: After I got my compensation, I rented a small place in Shenzhen
with my friends and we also travel - if our health allows it - to
factories in the area to talk with other workers, mainly about work
safety issues.
What kind of factories have you visited?
All sorts. We are most familiar with jewellery factories, but we
have also been to battery factories, shoe, metal and toy factories.
Battery workers deal with potassium, lead and phenyl; the metal
workshops produce lot of copper and iron dust which is very hazardous;
toy factories use paints and the shoe workers are exposed to those
harmful glue. We have been in touch with about 70 workers, apart
from some hundred workers from two GP battery factories.
Was there a trade union at your previous workplace?
No, there isn’t even one now! [Lucky Jewellery has a workforce of
3,000 and Ko Ngar 700 workers, respectively. Ed].
Yang: When we fell sick, we sent 25 workers’ representatives to
Beijing in May 2004 and they visited the Letters and Complaints
Office and also the ACFTU. The ACFTU told them that they should
visit Ministry of Labour and Social Security instead of them.
What do ordinary migrant workers think about the ACFTU?
Hmm… they either don’t know what ACFTU does or they are disappointed
by what it does. When we were workers, we knew the ACFTU existed
but it had nothing to do with us. Then after the time it turned
us away in Beijing when we went there to seek help, we realized
that it was not helpful at all.
Is it a problem that the ACFTU is not functioning as it should
be?
Yes. At the moment, in most of the factories, workers and the employers
have no channel to communicate, and in fact, many problems could
be solved if both parties have a chance to talk and sort things
out. Now workers have no option but to keep their discontentment
hidden until they can’t bear it anymore and it usually ends in an
industrial action, but we think, if there is a union to talk on
behalf of the workers, it could make a difference and make both
sides’ life easy.
Have you encountered workers who proactively call for the formation
of a union?
Not really. We think one reason for this is because workers might
be aware of their own rights but they have not yet developed the
idea of sticking together to fight for their rights. The other reason
is that they don’t know how a union works - we mean an independent
trade union. Inside China, we have too little access to information
about what the outside world, especially the labour movement, is
like. It is just too difficult for a Chinese worker to imagine.
Once a member of staff from a Hong Kong labour NGO visited us and
one of the workers asked him; “are you a triad member?” That worker
thought that the idea of sticking together to demand something is
what a triad does.
Yang, can you tell me why you choose to stay in Guangdong to
work with other workers after you got your compensation? And Feng,
why are you doing this work when you have all sorts of other problems
to face [Feng Xingzhong has not yet received any compensation and
has an aged mother to care for in Sichuan Province]
Well, we don’t want to have the mindset that we are sick and therefore
we are not able to contribute. First of all - you know its like
a psychological therapy for ourselves when we help others. Secondly,
we see what we do as a long-term struggle, to remind the local factories
that besides making money, they should also listen to the voice
of the migrant workers’ both inside and outside their factories.
Because we see it as a long term struggle, we try to be optimistic,
cheerful and take good care of ourselves, so we may live longer
to see if our work brings about any results.
What do you think foreign NGOs, media or trade unions can contribute
to this struggle?
In terms of the media - they should pay more attention to the living
conditions of Chinese workers’ and they should in particular visit
factories unannounced. You know that auditing firms and labour inspectors
usually give the factory notice days before the inspection and the
factory has enough time to clean up the factory, hide some workers
to make the workplace look more spacious and give the children a
day off.
Children? Are you saying factories employ children?
Many of the jewellery factories take young people from the ages
of 12 to 15.
Why?
Well, firstly workers are aware that the jewellery industry is dangerous
and the pay is not great, so new workers are difficult to come by.
Also, there is a labour shortage in southern China and jewellery
factories are seriously affected. Therefore they pay some middlemen
to go to inland [and relatively poor] provinces like Guizhou or
Yunnan to look for youngsters and persuade them to work in Guangdong.
[For
a report on a similar case, please click here]
What do you think of the work that the ICFTU does – for example
in submissions to the ILO and the UN?
We haven’t read those reports, but we think they can be very useful,
especially if those reports from ICFTU really reflect the truth.
Because of strict control on reporters’ activities in China, the
outside world may not get the full picture about the situation of
Chinese workers’ and may under or over-state a particular problem
or situation. But as long as ICFTU is telling the truth about the
Chinese government and telling the Chinese government the truth,
then in the long term, we believe it will make a difference. At
least it will give them the impression that others are watching.
What else can the international labour movement help the Chinese
workers?
We think apart from what you tell us it has been doing, the international
union movement could try to advise the ACFTU on how to work better.
This may not have an immediate positive response but we believe
that with foreign unions watching, the ACFTU at least would not
perform worse than it does now [and maybe will improve].
When was the first time you learned about independent trade
unions?
Feng: In June 2005, the second time I came to Hong Kong. In addition
to NGOs which offered me help, unions in HK also took part in the
protest [HKCTU facilitated a press conference] and I really appreciated
that. Since then I started to learn more about independent trade
unions.
You said you were traveling around and meeting with workers,
is there anything you want the international unions to do to assist
you?
Yes. We would love to have some leaflets - in Chinese, of course.
They can tell workers about labour rights and also give stories
about the international labour movement. One problem for Chinese
workers is that they cannot access this information in China freely,
even though they would be interested to learn more. Also, if you
have videos and other materials portraying the struggles of workers
outside China, that would be also very useful.
Are you optimistic about the struggles of the Chinese workers’?
Yang: I am not very optimistic because the scale of the problem
is just too big. But I am really glad that foreign media, unions
and NGOs are so willing to help.
Feng: We have just started our work and I am not too pessimistic.
We need more international exposure and also we need to give Chinese
workers more confidence to voice out their struggles.
Do you have any thoughts about when the Chinese government may
ratify the ILO Conventions 87 and 98 [on freedom of association
and collective bargaining]?
Yang: In two or three years.
Feng: No idea… one day but not that soon.
Background:
Yang Renping: Previously a migrant worker and
stonecutter at Lucky Gems and Jewellery Company’s Shenzhen Plant
from the mid-1980s to early 1990s. He fell ill and returned to his
hometown in Sichuan and only found out he was suffering from silicosis
in late 1990s. When he returned to Lucky Gems to demand compensation,
he discovered the factory had moved to another city in Guangdong
Province, Huizhou shortly after he had left the factory and when
he came back, the factory denied he was once their worker. He lodged
a compensation claim and protested to the local government and even
visited Beijing to complain to the ACFTU, but he did not receive
anything. In February 2005, when he and other silicosis-affected
workers came to Hong Kong to protest at the factory’s headquarters,
it was the first time the factory owner agreed to talk with them.
He then received a one-off compensation of 200,000 Yuan, a figure
far less than what he needs to treat the illness. He is currently
traveling town to town in Guangdong Province to educate other workers
on the importance of occupational health and safety.
Feng Xingzhong: In 1993, Feng Xingzhong, at the
age of 18, entered Ko Ngar Gems Factory Limited’s factory in Huizhou
City as a stonecutter. In May 2000, after the factory’s medical
checkup, a factory manager informed Feng that he had contracted
tuberculosis [a disease not related to the jewellery industry and
hence one which would absolve the factory of any legal obligation
to compensation] and told him to take sick leave. In 2002, realizing
that he had been cheated by the factory and wasted two years in
curing an illness that he did not have, Feng lodged a compensation
claim at the Labour Disputes Arbitration Committee in Haifeng County,
where the factory had by then relocated under a new name - Gaoyi
Factory. Mrs Feng, who also worked in the same factory, was sacked
as a result of her husband’s claim for compensation. His claim was
then rejected on the grounds that he had exceeded the 60-day time
limit for such claims and since then – up until now, Feng has been
running between courts at various locations, traveling to HK to
protest at jewellery exhibitions and also demanding compensation
from the Hong Kong based owners. Like Yang, Feng has also be openly
brave in visiting different factories to see if he can be of help
to other workers and in talking in several press conferences about
the jewellery workers’ stories, in order to get more people to be
aware of the blood-stained history behind the jewels.
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January 2006
IHLO
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