Archive for 8.5.2 Metalwork

Report on Industrial Relations and Working Conditions in IMF-related TNCs in China

Abstract The International Metalworkers’ Federation(IMF) commissioned research on industrial relations and working conditions in metal sector transnational companies in China to examine the current situation. The research finds most workers surveyed as part of the study at foreign invested plants in China have very little understanding of what a trade union is or its capacity to represent workers’ interests. The research also found that while working conditions at foreign invested metal sector plants are better than average factory working conditions in China, only one third of factories surveyed had a trade union present. The investigation included research into the working conditions inside 27 factories with foreign investors including Daimler Chrysler, Hyundai, Volkswagen, Toyota, Nokia, Delphi, Bosch, General Electrics, Electrolux, Panasonic and Flexitronics. The research was undertaken by the Hong Kong-based Asian Monitor Research Centre. IHLO was one of the local research partners and IHLO staff formed part of the steering group wroking on the project.
Author Asia Monitor Resource Centre (AMRC) and International Metalworkers’ Federation(IMF)
Publisher
Link http://www.imfmetal.org/files/07050810105979/IMF_china_report_EN.pdf
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8 Energy Intensive Industries, 8.5.2 Metalwork

The Restructuring Process at the Liaoyang Fero-alloy Factory and Workers’ Anti-Corruption Struggles

Abstract During the annual meetings of the NPC and CPPCC in Beijing in March 2002, a mass strike erupted in the northeast city of Liaoyang. The strike was mainly initiated by the workers of the Liaoyang Ferroalloy Factory and involved more than ten plants that were slated to be restructured. Thousands of workers participated in the demonstration, and called upon the central government to punish local corrupt officials, protect the assets of state-own enterprises, and maintain workers’ rights. The demonstration lasted for nine days from March 11 to 20. Later four workers’ representatives, including Fuxin Yao and Yunliang Xiao, were arrested by the people’s armed police and police security sent by the Liaoyang city government. They were later charged with the “subversion of State power.”
Author China Left Review, Issue 4, 2011, Liao Yuan,The Restructuring Process at the Liaoyang Fero-alloy Factory and Workers’ Anti-Corruption Struggles
Publisher
Link http://chinaleftreview.org/?p=480
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8 Energy Intensive Industries, 8.5.2 Metalwork

A Cry for Justice: The Voices of Chinese Workers

Abstract The accounts in this book, told in workers’ voices from inside China, are drawn directly from radio interviews by one of the leaders of an independent labour organization in 1989. It includes information about strikes in metallurgy sector.
Author The Albert Shanker Institute, March 2008, A Cry for Justice: The Voices of Chinese Workers
Publisher
Link http://www.shankerinstitute.org/docs/cry-for-justice.pdf
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8 Energy Intensive Industries, 8.5.2 Metalwork

The Liaoyang Workers Struggle: Portrait of a Movement

Abstract Account of major worker struggles at the Liaoyang Ferroalloy Factory and other metallurgy plants
Author China Labour Bulletin (CLB), July 2003
Publisher
Link http://www.clb.org.hk/en/node/2932
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8 Energy Intensive Industries, 8.5.2 Metalwork

Paying the Price: Worker Unrest in Northeast China

Abstract From March through May 2002, well-organized workers’ protests in three cities in northeastern China brought unprecedented numbers of disaffected, laid-off, and unemployed workers into the streets. In an area of high unemployment, extensive poverty, conspicuous wealth, and what is widely viewed as endemic corruption, workers protested non-payment of back wages and pensions, loss of benefits, insufficient severance pay, maneuvers intended to bypass elected workers congresses, and unfulfilled government promises to help the unemployed find jobs. Like previous demonstrations in other areas of the northeastern “rust-belt,” the protests emerged from several years of privatization, down-sizing, and bankruptcies of state-owned enterprises in which workers had been promised lifetime employment and broad benefits. The protests in 2002, however, involved tens of thousands of workers from dozens of factories and mines, and lasted longer than any protests since the violent suppression of the 1989 Democracy Movement. This included protests in the metal sector, the Liaoyang workers, as well as other energy intensive sectors.
Author Human Rights Watch, August 2002
Publisher
Link http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/chinalbr0802.pdf
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8 Energy Intensive Industries, 8.5.2 Metalwork