If passed into law, the regulations could trigger a major overhaul of the collective consultation system that has prevailed in China over the last two decades. Photo by Travel Geographer.

A new research report published by Human Rights Watch this month documents a wide-range of labour abuses including anti-union activities but focuses primarily on safety issues. And here, for anyone remotely familiar with the working conditions and management practices in Chinese mines, an all-too-familiar picture emerges.

In this podcast, William Nee introduces the band New Worker Art Troupe, and talks a bit about the role of podcasting and social media.  Then the new Guangdong Regulations on the Democratic Management of Enterprises are also discussed.

As Foxconn was staging its elaborate song and dance show yesterday to convince the world that, after a string of suicides earlier this year, everything was now fine and the workers in its Chinese factories were happy, a Hong Kong activist group released a report on a lesser known factory where appalling work conditions have clearly not improved. In the last year alone, more than 60 workers at Elec-Tech International, a manufacturer of small home appliances, have been injured, many losing fingers and hands while operating antiquated and dangerous machinery at the company’s plant in Zhuhai, according to the report by Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM).