Worker Rights

Radio Free Asia (RFA) reports that relatives of the victims of the Chenjiashan mine explosion rioted when they learned that the mine authorities had suspended rescue operations after three days and sealed the mine shaft. More than 140 miners are said to have remained trapped in the mine before the end of rescue efforts. After trying to talk with local officials and to reporters in a town near the mine, the relatives attacked the provincial head of the Communist Party propaganda department and smashed windows and doors in local government offices.

A November 28 mine explosion killed some 166 miners working in the Chenjiashan mine in Shaanxi province, according to multiple news media sources. This disaster follows a series of mine explosions and fires that have taken 4,153 lives in the first nine months of 2004. A report in the South China Morning Post (SCMP) lists nine other large mine disasters in 2004 that have caused between 19 and 148 deaths each.

The SCMP reports that Chenjiashan is a large state-owned mine employing more than 3,000 workers. A later SCMP account alleges that mine management ordered the Chenjiashan miners back to work in the mine even though a fire that had broken out the previous week continued to burn.

After more than 12 years in prison, Liu Jingsheng, one of the founders of the Free Labor Union of China (FLUC), was freed November 29. His original sentence for "organizing and leading a counter-revolutionary organization," was to end in May 2007.

Now 50, Liu joined the 1978 Democracy Wall movement and, along with Wei Jingsheng, established the underground magazine, "Exploration." He was also one of the founders of the China Freedom and Democracy Party.

Radio Free Asia reports that an agricultural official in the Xinjiang regional government confirmed the existence of a system of forced labor called "hasha" in remote areas of the countryside, in which laborers are not paid for their work. The report quoted the official as saying: "In the other provinces in China where there has been rapid economic development, hasha was phased out long ago . . . [b]ut here in Xinjiang, we still need it."

One Uighur man described his experience with hasha to RFA as follows: "For one month out of every year for three years we were forced to open up land that had never been settled before—it was just wilderness. We were also forced to build houses for Han Chinese immigrants who were resettling in the area."

The Dui Hua Foundation has released information about the recent release of Chen Gang, a worker from Xiangtang, Hunan, and the propsective release next year of Wu Shishen, a former Xinhua domestic news editor. Both prisoners have long been the focus of advocacy efforts by human rights groups and foreign governments, including the U.S. government.

In an article translated by New Century Net on November 8, former Chinese reporter Liang Zhi discusses how news stories are censored in China. He cites examples of material that has been cut out of labor stories: usually reporting about major accidents or labor demonstations. The article also has a vivid description of the working conditions of Chinese reporters. The original Chinese version is available here.

The All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) has accused a number of multinational companies involved in the retail, computer and fast-food businesses of refusing to set up branches of the ACFTU. The ACFTU is the only legal union in China, and branches are not selected by a vote of employees, but instead arranged by ACFTU officials together with company management. When a branch is set up, dues are deducted from employees' wages. One ACFTU official threatened to seek punitive fines against multinationals that persist in refusing an ACFTU branch.

Kodak, one of the multinationals criticized by the ACFTU, asserted that it supported the establishment of authentic trade unions, but they must be "voluntary associations of employees. If our employees chose to do so, Kodak would fully support them.”

The All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) has accused a number of multinational companies involved in the retail, computer and fast-food businesses of refusing to set up branches of the ACFTU. The ACFTU is the only legal union in China, and branches are not selected by a vote of employees, but instead arranged by ACFTU officials together with company management. When a branch is set up, dues are deducted from employees' wages. One ACFTU official threatened to seek punitive fines against multinationals that persist in refusing an ACFTU branch.

Kodak, one of the multinationals criticized by the ACFTU, asserted that it supported the establishment of authentic trade unions, but they must be "voluntary associations of employees. If our employees chose to do so, Kodak would fully support them.”