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Trying to fight a hazy future
Layoffs: With many state-owned companies in
By Frank Langfitt
Originally published
JILIN CITY, China - Chanting
"Raise our pay!" thousands of workers took to the streets here last
spring, blocked traffic for hours and made their complaints about their
employer known to everyone. Jilin Chemical Industrial
Co., a state-owned company, was about to cut them from the payroll. They wanted
higher severance pay.
Some workers believed that their
demands would be met.
But when the protests resumed
for a second day, police armed with submachine guns surrounded the
demonstrators and detained those leading the chants. When a group of workers
blocked a train, police detained them, too.
By the fourth day, the protest
had been crushed.
"At first, everyone had a
pretty unified heart," said Lu Chunji, a
laid-off factory worker who had joined the crowds outside the gates of the
company's headquarters. But "when they saw so many police and plainclothes
officers, they were very afraid."
That is how most Chinese labor
demonstrations end: with a mixture of intimidation, arrests and small payoffs
to disgruntled employees. Since the mid-1990s, local governments have used
those tactics to defuse protests here in the country's northeastern rust belt
and elsewhere.
In the past month, tens of
thousands of laid-off laborers have demonstrated in the northeastern cities of Daqing,
The Chinese government's
consistent carrot-and-stick approach has prevented workers from forming independent
labor unions and halted any organized challenge to the Communist Party's
monopoly on power. The regime's control over state-run media - no other kind is
permitted - appears to have helped prevent word of demonstrations from
spreading and inspiring workers in other cities.
Since 1995,
One of the hardest hit parts of
the country is the northeast, an area once known as
Companies began laying off
millions of workers in the 1990s but continued to pay them small stipends. The
recent round of demonstrations has come as companies move to end their
financial responsibilities to employees through a process known as mai duan, literally "buy and
cut."
Companies are offering workers
one-time severance payments and ending free services, such as heating workers'
apartments. Workers, many in their 40s, complain that the lump-sum payouts are
too small.
The
"If they are laid off after
the age of 40, there is no chance for them," said Frank Prasmo, deputy general manager at the Century Swiss-Belhotel, the city's leading hotel, which laid off 60 workers last month. "It's tragic here in
The situation in Jilin City, which lies more than 700 miles northeast of
Beijing, illustrates the difficulties that laid-off workers face as they try to
adjust to China's rapidly changing economy and stand up to state-run companies.
The city, with a downtown
population of 1.4 million, lies along the sandy banks of the
Last April's demonstration began
after
"If they had called people
together and put forward several requests and told us what to do, we would have
followed them," said Lu, sitting in the back of a grocery store in one of
the company's apartment complexes. "The result would have been
different."
Most workers are understandably
reluctant to lead protests, which are virtually banned. Anyone who tries to
organize demonstrations risks years in prison.
Cai Guangye, a
38-year-old doctor at a military hospital here, tried to persuade workers at
other city factories to support protesters from Jilin
Chemical. He also tried to encourage solidarity demonstrations in hard-hit
Chinese cities, according to Li Qiang,
a New York-based labor activist.
Military authorities seized Cai's computer and detained him
for questioning in December. He remains in custody.
Bringing Chinese laborers
together is not easy. Most cannot afford cell phones and computers. And the
government's tight grip on the news media means that information about
demonstrations rarely travels far.
Li said many state employees tend to see labor disputes as
local matters, not as part of a national struggle for workers' rights.
"Chinese workers can't see
that far ahead," said Li, who used to work in an
electronics factory in the
It's not clear how long
Corruption and the nation's
widening income gap, though, are unpredictable factors. Jilin
Chemical workers acknowledge that
The problem came into some
relief earlier this month when 150 laid-off construction workers protested in
front of City Hall. "The Workers of the City's No. 2 Construction Company
want to be fed," read a blue banner held aloft by employees.
The government eventually
invited workers inside the building for talks. On the way through the parking
lot, they passed a Mercedes and an Audi, popular cars among officials and
entrepreneurs.
As for Jilin
Chemical's laid-off workers, they are spending their severance payments and
worrying about the future. Last year, Lu received a lump sum of $7,100 for
three decades of service.
Stripped of company benefits, he
must now pay $193 a year for heat and $175 annually for social security, which
he can't collect for at least another dozen years.
Lu says the money won't last.
The severance package is not enough for him to open a small business, and he
doesn't think he can find a new job.
"Nobody wants such an old
person," said Lu, 48. "After a few years, I'm not sure how I will
live."
Copyright © 2002, The Baltimore Sun