Leaner Factories, Fewer Workers Bring More
Labor Unrest to
Leaner Factories, Fewer Workers Bring More
Labor Unrest to
By ERIK ECKHOLM
Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company
As the overhaul of
enters a decisive
phase, public protests by displaced workers are becoming
larger and angrier
than ever, with huge demonstrations breaking out this
month in several
places.
In one dramatic example, every weekday since
March 1, tens of thousands of
irate workers have
gathered outside the headquarters of
glorified oil field,
at Daqing in the far northeast, charging official
deceit and betrayal
in what some experts have called the largest protests
over labor issues
since the Communist Party took power in 1949.
Labor disputes over money and benefits, often
peppered with charges of
official corruption,
have become frequent as
shed its bloated
state- owned factories. If reports in recent days from
Daqing and several other sites are any guide,
the scale of unrest is
likely to grow in
the months and years ahead as
industries to
competition under World Trade Organization rules.
Millions of middle-aged workers, in
particular, say they feel betrayed by
a system that long
gave them honor and security, if little money, and that
now seems intent on
discarding them.
The unrest has not threatened the rule of the
Communist Party, in part
because the police
crush any efforts to form independent unions or to
share labor
complaints across regions.
focused on the
stubborn poverty in the countryside, where a majority of
the people live, as
a source of instability. But the growing disaffection
of older urban
workers, too, is a major preoccupation and the government
has had only limited
success in building new social safety nets.
On Sunday in
antiriot force, told
an officers conference that with
the W.T.O. the
police must prepare for an increase in "mass incidents,"
the People's Armed
Police News reported today.
Workers at the giant Daqing oil complex, who
were long exalted as national
heroes, say they
were pressured to accept severance agreements that will
strand many in
poverty, facing old age without medical insurance or
pensions.
"We've been cheated and misled,"
said a woman who gave her last name, Liu.
Ms. Liu, who is in her 30's, took the buyout
in December 2000 along with
more than 50,000
other workers and, like most of them, has been unemployed
ever since.
Outraged workers in the aging industrial city
of
northeast, have
mounted growing waves of protest. Earlier this month, in a
rare example of
cooperation among workers from different industries, 5,000
workers from six
bankrupt factories held demonstrations, demanding more
than a year's worth
of unpaid wages and pensions and charging that
officials had embezzled
the funds.
The standoff there grew today as an estimated
30,000 workers from 20
different factories
gathered, demanding the release of a leader who was
arrested Sunday in
violation of a public pledge by the authorities,
according to
residents and outside rights monitors.
At the Daqing oil fields, workers say they
were deceived by managers when
they agreed to the
buyouts, sundering the traditional lifetime
worker-factory
relationship. Company executives, told to downsize, had
warned the workers
of imminent corporate bankruptcy and the likelihood of
massive layoffs with
little or no compensation. So more than 50,000
workers, of more
than 200,000, took severance offers of up to $500 for
each year of
service.
The sums, which were set without negotiation,
seemed large at the time,
workers say, and
were much higher than the national norm in such
situations. But
after more than a year of unemployment and rising
expenses, many of
the former employees feel scared and vulnerable.
The protests began when the Daqing Oilfield
Bureau announced it would stop
paying the former
employees' heating bills. It also said they would have
to make large annual
payments themselves if they wished to keep their
medical and old- age
insurance. On some days, more than 30,000 Daqing
workers have filled
the streets, witnesses say.
"We've discovered that there's a big
difference between what we were
promised and what
we've been given," said Ms. Liu, who spoke nervously
after receiving a
phone call from a reporter. "The managers were very
persuasive and
convinced us this was the best deal we could get."
Han Dongfang, an exiled labor advocate,
called the Daqing demonstrations
"probably the
largest protests over labor issues since 1949." Mr. Han, who
spent time in jail
for organizing an independent union in 1989, runs the
The Daqing workers tried to organize but some
leaders were detained and
others are now in
hiding, Mr. Han said. But the demonstrations have
continued in the oil
city, built with legendary hardship in the 1960's on
the cold, marshy
plains of
socialist model.
They fueled
more water than oil,
output is declining and production costs are
noncompetitive. In
1998, in a national restructuring of oil industries,
they became a
subsidiary of the PetroChina Company, which is listed on
stock exchanges in
shareholders.
Officials of PetroChina, the Daqing Oilfield
Bureau and the governments of
Daqing and
The party-run union at the oil fields denied
responsibility for the
welfare of the
protesters. "These people have terminated their contracts
in return for a lump
sum," said an official who did not give his name.
"They are no longer employees of the oil
field and they are no longer
members of the trade
union."
Riot police have been deployed in Daqing but
have so far shown restraint.
The Chinese press has not been allowed to
cover the disputes. The
shrinking oil
industry is seething with conflict elsewhere as well. Just
this month, disputes
over severance terms led to large protests at the
Huabei field in
a labor official
said.
Thousands of labor demonstrations or strikes,
usually short-lived, are
reported through
internal Government channels each year. Reports seeping
through the
censorship in recent weeks suggest how common and seemingly
intractable such
conflicts have become.
Last week, as the Daqing protests continued,
a more disruptive action
began in a coal
mining region in
the town of
blocked highways and
railroad tracks, according to local residents.
Textile workers are striking in the western
that state owners
are selling off their factory's assets rather than
trying to save it,
Mr. Han said. He acknowledges that state industries
must reduce their
work forces but said the hostility and misunderstanding
reflect the
inability of Chinese workers to organize and bargain.
Ms. Liu, the former employee, said: "In
the past, Daqing oil workers were
docile types who
obeyed the leaders. Now we feel differently."
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