Solidarity the Key
Restaurant worker: Zhe Mingzen:
"It's a long hard job. You never get a break. There is low pay and you work for 10 to 12 hours a day. There is no time to think. You put yourself into a life of working and sleeping. Every time you make a mistake the bosses condemn you with dirty language." |
Restaurant worker: Kam Yui-cheng:
"We never get any compensation when we have an accident. You don't get a payslip until you are made redundant. There is no holiday pay, little health and safety and no written contract " |
Such working conditions are all too frequently described on CLB's Web site. However this is a story with a rare happy ending. The Chinese workers above are not describing working conditions in a mainland sweatshop, but one in the UK where the Justice for Restaurant Workers campaign has been launched in Londons Chinatown.
Kam and Zhe are among four workers from the New Diamond restaurant, who were sacked for standing up to their employers and joining the Transport and General Workers' Union (TGWU). But Zhe Mingzen, Kam Yui-cheng, Chi Fan-chan and Hung Man-lo, with a total of 28 years service at the New Diamond between them, refused to give up without a fight and launched a campaign for compensation. They won. Although the final compensation figure has not been disclosed, the four had earlier rejected a figure of □0,000.
The workers were given full backing by the local TGWU branch and launched weekend pickets outside the restaurant that attracted the support of other British workers and their unions. In fact, it was the solidarity shown by other workers that forced the employers to negotiate. By bringing the dispute out of Chinatown and winning support from other workers, the employers were unable to rely on their traditional tactics of keeping the dispute "Chinese" and resorting to their triad friends to intimidate the four workers. The picket line was initially interrupted by a court injunction but immediately resumed after the High Court lifted it.
Although Zhe Mingzen left China over ten years ago, he has not forgotten the struggle for democracy and union rights in his homeland. As he told the UK's Socialist Worker:
"We have set up our group, Justice for Restaurant Workers, to give things back to the staff in Chinatown. This is the first time anything like this has happened in Chinatown. It is a significant thing and is happening all over the world. I heard the same story has happened in the New York Chinatown. We have to get huge trade union support to win our jobs back. We want to win our struggle in the traditional way. We have shown our power and strength in our pickets of the restaurant. Through our fight we have come into contact with socialists who are now our friends. There are many new things that we have had to think about what's going on in the world. We are against more privatisation. People are suffering from more profit for rich men. They are banging us down. We have to stop them making more profit. I come from Mainland China. The Communist Party took power in 1949. But they have taken up private positions in the government and the military to make more profit. They use the name of socialism. It's upside down. Now the only way they can stay in power is by inviting the multinationals in. People want democracy. A lot of people are still fighting for their rights in China. The leaders have said that only rifles are socialism-nothing else. They used the tanks and the army against the students in Tiananmen Square in 1989." |
The Justice for Restaurant Workers campaign looks set to continue. Following a victory march through London's Chinatown, where unionists handed out leaflets and stickers, the group have produced a bilingual bulletin and intend to take the struggle for better working conditions and union rights to restaurants in Chinatown and beyond.
CLB wishes the campaign every success. While the differences in the struggle for union rights in the UK and China are brutally clear - for example, we can name the organisers of this action without fear of them being imprisoned - and call for divergent strategies, our underlying belief remains the same: Workers Can Win!
-----------------------------------
Online:2001-8-23