The violent attack in November on Shenzhen labour activist Huang Qingnan focused international attention, albeit briefly, on the labour movement in southern China.
China Labour Bulletin finally enters the Twenty-first Century today with our first blog.
The blog will be written by different members of staff, and will update readers on our own particular areas of interest. I’m Geoffrey Crothall, editor of the English language website, and in this inaugural blog, I’ll try to explain the ideas behind our website’s redesign and the plans we have for future content.
CLB condemns the sentencing of Wang Guilan to re-education through labour on the spurious and arbitrary charge of “disturbing social order” during the Olympic Games, and calls for her immediate release. Photo of the Birds Nest by DonDomingo@flicker.com
Around 3,000 workers at the Chongqing No. 1 Cotton Mill were forcibly laid off between 2000 and 2003 with a living allowance of just a 235 yuan a month. Despite soaring food prices in Chongqing, the local government has refused to raise the allowance.
CLB publishes a report on China's coal mining industry focusing on the industry’s appalling safety record, collusion between mine owners and local government officials, and the government’s system of post-disaster management, which is systematically eroding the rights of the bereaved. Photograph by Andi808
More than 120 million Chinese, about ten per cent of the population, carry the Hepatitis B virus. They suffer from widespread and often insitutionalized discrimination. CLB is currently helping bring nearly 20 anti-discrimination law suits in the mainland. Photograph by Nako
Global retail giant Wal-Mart plans to sign collective labour contracts at all of its more than one hundred outlets in China by the end of September, according to the official Chinese media. Photo by h.dot@flickr.com