| Abstract |
Protests by retrenched oil workers in the city of Daqing have been continuing for over six weeks. Thousands – and on occasions, tens of thousands – of former oil workers have been gathering in Daqing’s Iron Man Square on a daily basis. In this broadcast, I ask why? At the time of the retrenchment, workers voluntarily applied for compensated redundancy, so what was the background to these agreements? How has the Daqing Petroleum Administration Bureau (DPAB) and the Daqing government reacted to protests from workers who dedicated their working lives to developing the Daqing oilfield? How have these workers been treated by the authorities? Over the next few programmes, we will use our broadcast to give the retrenched Daqing oil workers an opportunity to tell their side of the story. |
