There have been at least ten transport strikes in China over the last month, highlighting once again the high costs and unfair work practices bus and taxi drivers have to endure, and the continued willingness of transport workers to take to the streets in protest. China Labour Bulletin’s 2011 strike map documented five bus strikes and five protests by taxi drivers in October in towns and cities across China. These reported incidents are almost certainly just a small proportion of the actual number of protests.

Eight coalminers have died and several others remain missing after an explosion underground in China, state media has reported.

At the end of every year, we see an upsurge in migrant construction workers’ demands for wages in arrears. This year, the credit squeeze has meant the surge has come earlier. In the past week alone, the official Chinese media has reported over eight wage arrears cases, involving over 2,000 workers. Many workers didn’t get their money, worse still; many got badly beaten by thugs hired by their bosses. Now, a few “clever” migrant workers have started to take advantage of the public sympathy for their plight, and government policies to maintain social stability, in order to exhort additional pay from their bosses.

Factories in China’s manufacturing heartland are feeling the squeeze again, with minimum wages in Guangdong province set to rise by as much as 20 percent on Jan. 1 for the second time in less than a year.