The three-day strike at Huizhou Power Pack Batteries Ltd. (08 -10 Dec 2009)

8 December 2009:  more than 1000 Gold Peak workers from the company’s Huizhou Power Pack plant went on strike. An earlier strike by Gold Peak workers at the Shenzhen JetPower Batteries lasted six days.

Problems at the Hong Kong owned Gold Peak batteries company never cease despite the extensive media and union scrutiny of the company since the mass poisoning of the workers was exposed. In this instance once again management showed its intransigence in the face of worker attempts to negotiate – however a strike shutting down production did achieve its aims – almost immediately. Hopefully this will set a precedent for management to observe the benefits of negotiation and discussion and reduce the number of violent conflicts involving local police and the riot police.

The strike at Power Pack

At Power Pack wages have been stagnant for a long time despite increasing living costs. Workers have just recently discovered that the majority of them have been being paid up to seven Yuan a day less than new internship students recruited from a local vocational college. The workers made a collective complaint to Huizhou municipal and Labour Bureau and request for investigation which has been ignored.

With no response from the local government, three male workers went to the Human Resource Manager's office and tried to discuss with him how to settle the demands. The two parties argued and the manager called the security guards. A further conflict occurred when security used force to eject the workers. The police was then called by the workers.

After this some senior workers started to strike in the morning of 8 December. After lunch other workers blocked the stairs and employees were not allowed to go back to work. In the afternoon, all the workers (more than 1,000) began to join the strike and the production was then at a complete standstill.

Riot police called in

Early in the morning of 9 December, more than 500 workers continued with the strike. Having had no response from the labour authorities and management, they walked to the main streets and blocked the traffic.

Police and later riot police were called in to forcibly disperse the workers.  

Ms. Tan Ling – a female GP worker got hurt in melee when she was in the crowd.  Several police officers tried to pull her out of the street but she fainted and was injured in the process. She was then sent to a local hospital for treatment by the police. She was treated for multiple soft tissue injuries but her medical records were taken away by GP managers. However, GP is refusing to pay Ms. Tan’s medical fee.

At the same time the factory management finally called for a meeting with workers and the managing director of Gold Peak (Huizhou) started negotiations with worker representatives. No agreement was reached until 10 December.

Meanwhile the factory announced that any employee who does not report for work during for three days will be automatically terminated. Workers realized that they will either take the risk of losing their job or they should return to work. Finally the majority decided to go back to work and the two and a half day strike ended.

Success

In the aftermath of the strike, Gold peak management agreed to increase workers’ basic salary by one Yuan a day and the special allowance by one Yuan/day. Worker’s requests for an increase of two Yuan in their basic salary were not met.   The GP workers had wanted  an increase in their basic salary, rather than an increase in the subsidies which can be cancelled at any time. If the base salary increases, overtime pay will also increase.

One more lesson -  but the authorities and the company refuse to respond to the workers’ demands as usual

As happened in the last strike in Gold Peak’s JetPower Factory the management ignored worker demands until the very last moment. The two strikes also reveal the lack of effective communication systems and negotiation platforms inside Gold Peak enterprises. In addition the worker’s demand were ignored by the local authorities which left the workers with little option but to take strike action and communicate this to the outside world through gathering outside the gates. Finally there was no apparent role played in the dispute by the local Huizhou branches of the ACFTU underlining the futility most workers feel in contacting the unions.

IHLO

December 2009

For the Open Letter by Hong Kong based unions and groups to Gold Peak on this case see:  Letter to Gold Peak Industrial Holding Ltd regarding Power Pack Dec 2009

For more information on the Gold peak campaign see IHLO website and Globalisation monitor