A university student-worker at Coca-Cola’s bottling plant in Hangzhou, Zhejiang, was threatened and beaten by the managers of a labour supply company after he sought wages in arrears on behalf of himself and his colleagues, the Hong Kong-based pressure group Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) reported today.

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

A suicide in China has trained a spotlight on Apple and pressure-filled factories.
By David Pierson and Alex Pham

July 29, 2009

Reporting from Los Angeles and Beijing — Sun Danyong was the mild-mannered son of a potato-farming family in an impoverished corner of south-central China.

A twenty four-year-old university graduate working at a moldings factory in the Houjie district of Dongguan jumped from his fourth floor dormitory after being refused time off work by management, the Guangzhou Daily reported.

The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) announced on 13 July 2009 that labour disputes in China as a whole climbed by 30 percent in the first half of 2009. Certain areas saw sharper increases, with labour disputes in the first quarter of 2009 shooting up by 41.6 percent in Guangdong, 50.3 percent in Jiangsu, and a staggering 159.6 percent in Zhejiang.

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

China Labour Bulletin has written to major electronics companies, including Apple, Nokia and Motorola, urging them to investigate reports of excessive overtime, management abuse and the firing of striking workers at Wintek Dongguan Masstop, one of their major suppliers in China.

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.

Han Dongfang talks to a workers’ representative trying to reclaim 24,500 yuan in wage arrears for his colleagues about the refusal of the boss to pay and the reluctance of the local labour bureau to get involved in this “small matter.”

On 30 July 2008, 21 workers at an automotive company in Xiangfan, Hunan province, applied for arbitration at their local Labour Dispute Arbitration Committee, claiming wages in arrears, unpaid overtime and non-payment of social security contributions.

China Labour Bulletin appears in the following article. Copyright remains with the original publisher.
By Tom Mitchell in Dongguan
Published: March 4 2009 18:39