If you ask a factory worker or a waitress in Dongguan if they have had a pay raise recently, they will either stare at you blankly or just burst out laughing. For all the hype in the Chinese and international media about 30 percent wage inflation and a “famine” of more than one million labourers in the Pearl River Delta, the reality for migrant workers remains the same; low pay, long hours and no job security.

As the Chinese economy recovers, an influential magazine calls on the government and trade unions to take concerted measures to alleviate the growing conflict between workers and management. Photo. Onekel

CLB director Han Dongfang argues that moves by the authorities in Shanxi to close and merge small privately-run mines with larger state-run mines will only improve coal mine safety if miners are allowed to play a key role in safety management. Photograph by andi808.

The government’s revisions to its Work-related Injury Insurance Regulations will go a long way to giving workers the insurance cover and legal protection they need, but lack the clout to force employers to comply.

The death of Chen Guojun at the hands of angry workers at the Tonghua Steel works on 24 July prompted a flurry of comment and speculation in the Chinese media. There was one issue however that everyone seemed to agree on; namely the need to better protect the rights and interests of workers during the process of state-owned enterprise reform - the only question that remained was how.

CLB looks at how the workers’ movement in China has developed over the last two years, how the government has responded to it, and why the official trade union has been unable to play a positive role in it. Photo by Saad Akhtar

This year, as every year, China Labour Bulletin mourns all those who died in the brutal government crackdown on the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy movement on this day 20 years ago, and our hearts go out to the bereaved families, all of whom have paid a bitter price for their loved-ones’ fateful efforts to bring China peacefully out of autocracy.

On the 20th anniversary of the crushing of the pro-democracy movement in Beijing, CLB Director, Han Dongfang, expresses the hope that China’s current generation of civil rights defenders can realize the dreams of the Tiananmen Square protesters, but without further bloodshed. Photo by Chamarisk.

What does the ACFTU consider its role to be: Is it a defender of workers’ rights or a servant of the Chinese Communist Party and government? A new report from CLB explores the complex identity of China’s official trade union. Photo by SJ photography

The global economic crisis has prompted several Chinese officials to make short-sighted comments. However, none have been more damaging than ACFTU Vice-Chair Sun Chunlan’s claim that the union needs to guard against hostile forces infiltrating the ranks of migrant workers. Photo by Saad Akhtar.