China Labour Struggle Weekly Highlight

Macau labour group demands meeting with Sands China

Macau labour group Forefront of the Macao Gaming is demanding a meeting with officials from gaming operator Sands China Ltd to discuss the company’s policies on pay and promotion of casino floor workers. The group’s president Ieong Man Teng told local media on July 25 that if the company does not meet with the labour group by Friday (August 1), it might organise a new protest or even a strike on August 28.

Source: GGR Asia

China’s coal miners protest as pit closures and wages arrears take toll

A nearly two-year-long slump in China’s coal industry is forcing miners to get organized and start taking action. As coal mines have closed and businesses have gone bankrupt, leaving miners and support staff unpaid for months on end, there is evidence that miners are now more willing and able to take strike action in the defence of their interests.

Source: China Labour Bulletin

Workers at golf equipment factory in Shenzhen end strike after management agrees to negotiate

More than 200 striking workers at Taiwanese-owned QLT Golf Supplies in Shenzhen went back to work today after negotiations with management on 22 July. The strike and subsequent bargaining shows what can be achieved when workers and management are willing to sit down face-to-face and work out problems together rather than adopt a hard-line attitude and refuse to compromise.

Source: China Labour Bulletin

Labour arbitration law could have prevented worker’s suicide

On July 17, the 49-year-old worker Zhou Jianrong leapt to her death from the fourth floor of the GCL Footwear Factory complex in Shenzhen. Less than 24 hours earlier, she had been fired from a job she held for 12 years, following a long-running dispute with management. If sacked shoe factory striker Zhou Jianrong’s suicide speeds passage of labour arbitration law, it will have saved jobs of others fighting for rights.

Source: South China Morning Post