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.
The global economic slowdown, combined with increased mechanization in the textile industry, has made life extremely difficult for unskilled migrant workers in China’s silk capital, Shengze. Many factories have halted production and laid workers off. Photograph by onekell @ flickr.com
One of China’s largest and most profitable coal companies has refused to give “one cent” to the widower of an employee of 26 years because it claimed her death was not work-related. Sun Shengqiang describes his year-long struggle for justice against a cold and unfeeling corporate giant.
A new report by CLB and Canada’s Rights and Democracy reveals how the lives of millions of workers were thrown into turmoil during the wholesale privatization of China’s state-owned enterprises in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Photo of abandoned SOE in Liaoning by Sonya@flickr.com
A Dongguan court on 22 October 2008 ruled against a plaintiff who was seeking 500,000 yuan in psychological damages after being refused employment at Nokia (China) because of his Hepatitis B (HBV) status. However, key evidence was not heard by the court. Photo by Pierrick Blons
It is not just in China’s export orientated manufacturing hub, the Pearl River Delta, that company bosses are leaving workers with unpaid wages. The global economic crisis is affecting all of China’s eastern provinces, and more and more bosses are responding by cutting and running. Photo by phinalanji@flickr.com