China Labour Bulletin has learned that since 8 February 2004, an estimated 2,000 workers and retired workers from the Tieshu Textile Factory in Suizhou, Hubei Province have been staging further public protests in their ongoing struggle to recover unpaid benefits and against corruption at the factory. CLB has been monitoring and reporting on the case since the end of 2002, when the factory announced its bankruptcy.
For more details please see: Suizhou Tieshu workers vow to continue their struggle for missing benefits
According to eyewitnesses interviewed by CLB, on 8 February some 1,200 workers blocked the local railway for most of the morning. They were then joined by several hundred more workers. Later that morning, some 800 armed police and regular police from neighboring towns arrived to disperse the protestors and block the arrival of hundreds more who were heading toward the scene.
In the violent confrontation that followed, according to eyewitnesses, scores of demonstrators were injured; the police are claiming that over ten police officers and no workers were injured. A staff person at the local hospital has confirmed to CLB that at least one worker and two police officers were admitted with head injuries, including a 65 year-old woman. CLB managed to speak to the daughter of the elderly woman, Wang Xuping, who stated that police had hit her mother over the head from behind with a police baton. According to the interview, the police were randomly hitting the demonstrators regardless of whether or not they were actively resisting the police’s attempts to disperse them.
As workers left the scene of the confrontation, several among the last of them to leave were apprehended by the police. Further detentions of workers took place that afternoon and during 9, 10 and 11 February. . According to workers interviewed by CLB, the police were rounding up workers arbitrarily from the local streets and markets, and among those taken away were people who had not even been present at the demonstration. We were also informed that several officers of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) who had been present at the confrontation and had verbally reprimanded the police for their brutal treatment of the demonstrators. One PLA officer reportedly has since been taken into police custody on charges of “inciting workers to cause trouble”.
Reports vary as to where the detained workers are being held. Some workers interviewed believed that they were being held in a local hotel for special “re-education” sessions organized by the local ACFTU, the Women’s Federation and the police. Another interview stated that over 20 detainees were being held at the Suizhou No.2 Detention Centre. However, when contacted by CLB, officials from both the ACFTU and the detention centre denied any knowledge of the detainees.
Since the initial blocking of the railway line on 8 February and the bloody confrontation with police that followed, some 1,000 workers have continued to gather each day outside the gates of the Suizhou Municipal Government buildings. On 11 February, when the workers attempted to enter the Town Hall to seek dialogue with the local government, another worker leading the demonstration was apprehended. As of 11 February, several hundred protestors were said to be maintaining their vigil outside government buildings.
Causes of conflict
The 8 February demonstrations were sparked by the Tieshu workers’ receipt, the previous day, of an official notification, issued jointly by the factory’s Bankruptcy Audit Committee and its Communist Party branch, which reversed a series of earlier pledges that had been made to the workers.
According to the notification, only a small proportion of the funds invested by the workers themselves in the factory in 1993 and 1997 would be returned to them. Many of the current workers and those recently retired (from about 1999 onwards) had been encouraged to buy shares in the factory in order to support it financially. It later emerged that the factory director had issued warnings, as early as 1999, to a number of private shareholders and personal friends that the shares were going to fall in value as the factory moved towards bankruptcy. The workers however did not know of the warnings until it was too late and bankruptcy was declared, and in the recent official notification they learned that their 1993 shares were now worth only one fourth of their original value.
Second, the Bankruptcy Audit Committee informed the Tieshu workers that two formerly distinct categories of laid-off workers would henceforth be “merged” and that all existing benefits for both groups were to be withdrawn. Previously, the company had some 3,500 workers who were still classified as “employed” (despite not actively working) who were supposed to receive some 130 Yuan each month as a living subsidy, while some 835 “internally-retired” workers received benefits of 531 Yuan every month. This benefit had already been reduced in 2001 to 236 Yuan. These internally retired workers had taken up early retirement on the condition that this benefit would continue until formal retirement age, when they would become eligible for state pensions.
However, the notice stated that after March 2004, there would be no distinction drawn between these two classes of workers and that neither would receive any benefits whatsoever. A previous “supplementary” benefit of 127 Yuan per month for each worker had been withdrawn in January 2003 and this latest move would thus mean the effective end of any financial help for the workers.
Instead of assisting the workers in their demands the municipal branch of the ACFTU has reportedly joined a committee of government officials set up in the factory after 8 February to look into the situation. ACFTU officials told CLB that the situation is “under control” and all the workers are now “satisfied”, after some unspecified policies had been changed. The official refused to give further details.
The factory, which reportedly employs about 5,700 people, announced its bankruptcy in December 2002 and is currently working out bankruptcy and layoff procedures. In addition to the two categories of workers mentioned above there are also some 1,300 formally retired workers who claim insurance benefits from the state.
Background
After repeated refusals by factory management to hold genuine negotiations over the terms of the bankruptcy agreements, workers from the Tieshu Textile Factory staged large-scale public protests throughout 2003. The workers are currently demanding that the factory authorities pay them all previously agreed pensions, other benefits and basic living costs, and that the proper value of their shares in the factory be returned to them. The workers are also calling on the government to investigate their allegations of corruption by officials at the factory which, they believe, has directly led to its imminent bankruptcy.
The first mass demonstrations took place on 2 January 2003 and involved some 1,000 workers. Tired of waiting for an official response to the earlier protests, despite heavy rain and cold conditions, workers again blocked the entrance to the factory and halted production in March 2003. Following the mass protests in January 2003, the local Public Security Bureau declared the workers actions to be “illegal” and began a door to door man-hunt for the alleged leaders.
The workers have also attempted to utilize the courts to gain redress. Over 300 workers filed a joint complaint to the Suizhou People’s Court asking that missing pensions and other benefits be paid by the Tieshu Group. However, the court ruled in favour of the factory. The workers appealed but on 5 June 2003, their appeal was rejected by the Hubei High People’s Court. The workers then issued a public appeal proclaiming their determination to continue their struggle and to take the case to the central authorities. CLB has since learned that their lawyer has withdrawn from the case following pressure from the authorities. In September 2003, further protests were held.
The continued activism of the Tieshu workers, despite ongoing repression, reveals both the seriousness of the situation and the strength of feeling behind the workers demands. However, in interviews after the violent suppression on 8 February, several workers have said that they are now maintaining a low profile in an effort to avoid official retribution.
For details on the earlier protests please see the following compendium of reports, press releases and interviews : Suizhou Tieshu workers vow to continue their struggle for missing benefits
12 February 2004