China said the number of people living in cities exceeded the rural population for the first time, a historic shift that experts said would put a strain on society and the environment. The change marks a turning point for China, which for centuries was a mainly agrarian nation but has witnessed a huge population shift to cities over the past three decades as people seek to benefit from rapid economic growth.

Han Dongfang talks to a young couple fighting an obstinate employer and buck-passing officials to get unpaid social security contributions who finally got some help after posting an account of their struggle online.

China plans to give women eight days more paid maternity leave in an overhaul of benefits that promises to standardize and improve their labor rights. Standard maternity leave will be increased to 98 days from 90 days, according to draft regulations posted yesterday on the website of the Legislative Affairs Office, a working body of China’s cabinet. The plan includes insurance coverage for claims related to childbirth and miscarriage.

A university graduate employed as a “village official” in rural Sichuan for three years was denied unemployment benefit because the local government refused to pay his social security contributions.

An elderly community teacher talks to Han Dongfang about his attempts to get a just and decent pension for himself and his colleagues after the authorities basically abandoned them after decades of service. Photo Han Dongfang at Radio Free Asia

Despite recent increases in the minimum wage, the nearly 100 million young migrants who drive China’s factories are still earning around half the income of urban residents, according to an extensive survey by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions. The survey of 1,000 enterprises, published on 21 February, found that migrant workers under 30 years of age earned 1,748 yuan per month on average, compared with the 3,047 yuan per month earned by urban residents.

Han Dongfang talks to a family of healthcare professional’s whose demands for pension arrears resulted in nine years of petitioning, detention in a black jail, and eventually incarceration in a psychiatric hospital.

Following the lead of Zhang Haichao, who famously underwent open-chest surgery to prove he was suffering from pneumoconiosis, 13 migrant workers from Yunnan have applied to have the same operation to examine their lungs, according to the local Chinese media.

Han Dongfang talks to Dai Deshu, a 67-year-old former tailor from Chongqing about the long and painful struggle of thousands of elderly artisans and handicraft workers discarded during the process of economic reform.

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