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.

Over a four year period, more than 2,000 employees at an ailing state-owned enterprise had their pension contributions, totaling some 80 million yuan, secretly siphoned off by management, allegedly for speculative real estate developments in Shaanxi’s Mian county.

China Labour Bulletin is helping a retired miner in Sichuan with third-stage pneumoconiosis sue for work-related illness compensation after his boss, a local coal baron and parliamentarian, refused any payment. The trial began on 11 September 2008 at the Qu County People’s Court with the exchange of evidence.

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.

In the late 1990s, China’s state-run railways laid off hundreds of thousands of workers as part of economic rationalization drive. The Shenyang Railway Authority devised a novel scheme whereby workers were retired “on medical grounds” even though many had never taken a day’s sick leave in their lives.

Bank employees from Guangxi petitioned government officials in Beijing after being pressured into signing unfair redundancy agreements. They were harassed, beaten and one employee was allegedly sentenced to a year’s reform through labour

When the state-owned Dazhou AutomotiveTransport Co was transformed into a joint-stock company, management threatened every worker with dismissal if they refused to buy company stock. The shares turned out to be worthless but when the workers tried to sue management, they were told the court could not accept the case.

An Anhui farmer’s home and livelihood are destroyed in the local government’s push for economic development. Officials brazenly flout the law and hire thugs to drive property owners out.

When local governments formulate state-owned enterprise (SOE) restructuring programmes and policies, they very often do not think through the long-term consequences of those polices. The focus is generally on closing down or merging inefficient enterprises, with little attention paid to the plight of those who will lose their jobs.

Union official admits the ACFTU was “helpless” to prevent a long running dispute at the Yueyang Steelworks in Shaanxi from developing into major strike with up to 3,000 workers blocking an inter-province highway for four days.