Three workers died and another three were seriously injured during a sulfuric acid explosion at an electroplating factory in Shenzhen, China’s official media reported at the weekend.

Young, poorly educated sex workers in the central Chinese city of Wuhan are routinely abused by clients but have little or no recourse to justice. Most do not trust the police and the vast majority (about 80 percent) have no knowledge of their legal or civil rights, according to a recently published survey.

In July 2009, Zhang Haichao voluntarily underwent an operation to open up his chest in order to prove he was suffering from the fatal lung disease pneumoconiosis. Photograph of Zhang by Yanzhou Metropolis Daily

CLB's new research report on the workers' movement was published on July 9 2009.

The Wall Street Journal's China Journal and Reuters both gave the report prominent coverage, see below. While the trade union website Labour Start made the report one of its top stories for the week.

In China, What Workers Want
10 July 2009

The massive landslide at an iron ore mine in rural Chongqing on 5 June 2009, which may have killed more than 70 people, has once again highlighted the dangers China’s mines pose, not just to miners but to nearby communities and the environment as well.

China Labour Bulletin appears in the following article. Copyright remains with the original publisher.

Sunday 24 May 2009

By: Claire Harvey

On a trip to China, Claire Harvey saw first-hand why it's so hard for Aussie clothing manufacturers to compete with cheap Chinese labour.

It is lunchtime at the Wen Ling garment factory and the clatter of sewing-machines gives way to laughing chatter, as young Chinese workers jostle and flirt their way to the tea-room.

Table of Contents

Part one: Those left behind

The central government in Beijing last week sent an investigative team to Fengyang county in Anhui to examine media claims that at least 12 migrant workers from Yunnan have died from silicosis after working in the county’s stone crushing mills. Fengyang officials claimed there was as yet insufficient evidence to prove that the Yunnan workers contracted silicosis from breathing in silica dust while blasting and crushing slabs of rock in the county’s factories.

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.