An Open letter to Gold Peak Industrial Holding Ltd.
December 10th, 2009
Mr. Victor Lo
Chairperson, Gold Peak Industrial Holding Ltd.
From December 8 to 10, 2009, one thousand workers from Power Pack, your company in Huizhou went on strike for three days.
On December 9, having aware to the fact that the management failed to response to the strike the day before, hundreds of angry workers first blocked the gate of the factory, and then took to the street and blocked the main road in front of the factory. Before long local police was called in to restore order, and the striking workers were forced to return to the factory, although the strike continued until the next day.
The grievances of the workers are continuously low wages and the cutting of benefits over the past two years, long before the economic downturn, and despite the fact that your company has been making a lot of money in the battery business for decades. According to the workers, "we have been working here for many years, but still earning only 33 yuan daily, and the management no longer provide food and lodging." They also complained that in previous years, the management provided food and lodging, along with year-end awards, travel and other benefits like giving out fruits to employees every week. Over the past two years, these benefits were all cut, however. The strike shows that the employees are now furious over the fact that their grievances not being heard, and are now demanding for a pay rise. Under pressure from the workers, it was reported that the management had agreed to increase daily wage by one yuan, but the workers refused to accept for being too low.
As the chairperson of a listed company, you bear the social responsibility to both your employees and the public to explain about the strike, and to initiate negotiation with the workers on a equal basis.
Your employees have also complained the company's management for being rude in dealing with them. During the strike, an employee at the plant gate was ruthlessly dragged along by the security, and had his arms and legs hurt. Yet your company, when interviewed by the media, denied that the incident happened at all. There was another employee who was injured when a scuffle broke out between workers and police, and she was hospitalized because of this.
We demand that Gold Peak Industrial Holding Ltd :
1.To make public statement about the incident;
2. Immediately initiate negotiation with all employees or their representatives in good faith to resolve the disputes over wages and benefits.
3. Since your company has made huge profit over the years, we believe that the Power Pack paying only 33 yuan for wages per day is underpaying your workers, and cutting their benefits is simply outrageous;
4. To investigate into the incident of how and why your security guards injured one of the workers; disciplinary action be taken against the attackers, and apologize to the victims;
5. The underlying causes of the incident is the unfair treatment of your employees at Power Pack, hence you have the moral responsibility to cover the medical costs of hospitalization of the injured worker.
We demand a reply from your company within a week.
Globalization Monitor Ltd
Asia Monitor Resource Centre
Contact person: May Wong, Globalization Monitor Ltd
Tel: (852) 6187 3401
Email: info@globalmon.org.hk
*The statement above is prepared by the Hong Kong Group Globalisation Monitor December 2009
IHLO
December 2009
Further details
For the JetPower strike summary : The three-day strike at Huizhou Power Pack Batteries Ltd. (08 -10 Dec 2009)
For more information on the Gold peak campaign see IHLO website and Globalisation monitor
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