Asian Labour News

China: 'Nice work if you can get it. Thanks America!'

Richard of Peking Duck piqued my interest the other day with a description of what he thought (wrongly) was a John Kerry campaign ad. I'll come back to the mistake later, but for the moment I want to stay with the ad. Richard wrote:

The ad begins by showing a group of factories that resemble what you'd find in America's Rust Belt. The announcer says something along the lines of, "During his administration, President Bush created more than 3 million new jobs." There's a brief pause, and the announcer continues, "In China."

Philippines: Negros farm workers decry landowners' resistance to agrarian reform

"About 5,000 farm workers marched through the major streets here to protest the alleged resistance of landowners to agrarian reform."

China: Three persons responsible for the Ertang coal mine disaster are punished

Over the last few days the Chinese press has carried two stories on the outcomes of hearings concerned with coal mine disasters. In the one I posted yesterday, 78 persons of varying rank received minor punishments ranging from black marks to being removed from office for their roles in four mine accidents that took 76 lives during 2003 in Henan. The story below stands in stark contrast, with a Guangxi court handing down jail terms to several people involved in a coal mine accident that killed 30 miners in October 2002. You can see a report in the China Daily on the accident here (though it's an early story and states 21 dead with nine missing).

I'm not entirely sure how to explain the difference in punishment, except that the highest death toll from the four accidents in Henan was 22; eight short of the toll in Guangxi. As Tim indicated in the comments section to the Henan story yesterday, the number of fatalities may be the deciding factor.

China: Chinese firms listed in Forbes Leading 2000 Companies

The article below from China's official news agency - Xinhua - says that "84 enterprises from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan have made it into" Forbes Leading 2000 Company List. That may be true, but when I checked rankings by country, I could find only 24 listed under "China", which included Sun Hung Kai Properties, CLP, Cathay Pacific and Swire (all Hong Kong companies by my understanding). This makes for a total of 20 mainland companies (21 if we include China Mobile, which is listed under Hong Kong/China). It's an impressive achievement, but to put it in context, Australia (a country of 20 million people) has 39 (if you include BHP Billiton and Brambles - both listed under Australia/UK), and the Cayman Islands (pop. 35,000) has 6. Okay, that last one was a cheap shot. Nevertheless, it's worth keeping a little perspective on these things.

China: Rescue work goes ahead for trapped miners in Jilin [update 3]

Two earlier stories on this accident are here and here. Compensation has already been arranged suggesting little hope of finding the seven men alive.

"Rescuers searching for seven miners trapped three days ago in a coal mine in northeast China's Jilin province will drain water from the mine on Thursday evening."

China: Repression is not an Olympic sport

About a week ago, the driving force behind Labor Rights Now! contacted me to say hello. In his email he said that the group is particularly focused on building support in the US and abroad for Yao Fuxin and Xiao Yunliang, who got seven- and four-year prison terms for their protests in Liaoyang. They're also hoping to use the Beijing Olympics to publicise their campaign to free labour activists, and have designed this poster. If you'd like to make use of it, contact the people at Labor Rights Now! and they'll try to organise a mail out.

Cambodia: ILO responds to criticisms of Arbitration Council

Yesterday I posted an article from the 25 March edition of the Cambodia Daily that said the arbitration Council was "all roar and no bite". Hugo van Noord, the ILO Chief Technical Advisor of the Cambodia Labor Dispute Resolution Project, has responded to that claim in a letter to the editor. A generous reader from Cambodia posted it in the comments section of the original story, but I'm reproducing it here.

"In your article in the Cambodia Daily of 25 March you reported on the challenges that the Arbitration Council faces when it comes to resolving labour disputes. Particularly, your article pointed out that the Council's decisions are normally non-binding and, even when parties agree to binding arbitration, a court order is still required to enforce an award."

China: Who are the unemployed?

"Who is unemployed and how many people are unemployed in China, a nation of 1.3 billion? Who is being counted and who is being excluded depends on whom you're talking to, and often how badly the counters want to keep the rate down."

Cambodia: Labor arbitrators challenged by limitations

"The Arbitration Council has already ruled that three of Cambodia's most posh hotels should pay their employees the service charge they are rightfully owed."

China: 'Daddy, are you still alive?'

I've only posted two stories on this coal mine accident, but it's getting a lot of coverage in the Chinese-language press (see here, for example). I'm adding this story not because it adds much in the way of facts (most articles simply reiterate that 10 workers are missing, two are injured and two dead after a gas explosion in a mine in Lianyuan, Hunan), but because it presents the human side of what is a daily occurrence in Chinese coal mines. The translation below is only a small part of the article, which deals mainly with the accident itself. I'm more interested here in the part where a young girl, pictured, arrives at the pit.

Laos: Female garment workers at high STD, AIDS risk

"Research has found that female workers in garment and other factories in Vientiane are at high risk of infection from sexually transmitted diseases. "

Thailand: Unions take privatisation protest to SET

"Over a thousand labour union members from five state enterprises yesterday rallied outside the headquarters of the Stock Exchange of Thailand to protest SET president Kittiratt Na Ranong’s continued support for privatisation."

Malaysia: Thai dies after brawl with Indonesian construction workers in Malaysia

"A Thai construction worker was beaten to death and another injured after they were attacked by a group of Indonesians at a construction site in northern Malaysia, police said on Thursday."

Philippines: Saudi police probe Filipina OFW's death

"The Saudi police have invited several persons for questioning about the death of Nelsa Villarta, who was murdered last week in Riyadh, the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration in Central Mindanao said Wednesday."

China: Henan adjudicates on 4 coal mine accidents, deals with 78 persons responsible

This is a summary, not a translation, of a Chinese-language article.

The Henan Bureau of Coal Mine Security Supervision has disciplined 78 persons with responsibilities for mine safety. It found that negligence was the cause of four accidents during 2003 resulting in the deaths of 76 miners and a direct economic loss of nearly 21 million yuan. The accidents under review and the findings regarding responsibility are as follow:

China: John Kerry campaign ad

From Richard at Peking Duck comes this description of a John Kerry campaign ad:

The ad begins by showing a group of factories that resemble what you'd find in America's Rust Belt. The announcer says something along the lines of, "During his administration, President Bush created more than 3 million new jobs." There's a brief pause, and the announcer continues, "In China." With that, the camera pans upward and pulls back to reveal huge signs over the factories, all in Chinese characters. The rest of the ad warns of the horrors of outsourcing and how Kerry will fight for US workers, whereas Bush caved in to big industry.

John Kerry has some recent ads online, but not this one. Please let me know if you have images or know where I can find some.

Source: "A foolish Kerry campaign ad about China," Peking Duck, 01 April 2004.

Asia: 'Me landline's carked it': Or when outsourcing goes wrong

A bit of humour to lighten the tone. Like the UK and US, Australian companies have outsourced call centre functions offshore. In this send up of a call to Telstra, an aggrieved customer in Warragamba tries to convey his complaint to a customer service manager in India. An appreciation of Aussie slang and the ability to understand a broad accent are probably essential aids to understanding this audio file.

Philippines: 'Bad time to talk about pay hike'

"Business groups are wary about plans by labor groups to demand for a wage hike following the government's decision to allow an increase in jeepney fares."

China: Water leakage in coal mine in Henan kills 2

This is the second story of water leakage in a mine in as many days. Water is still being pumped from a coal mine in Jilin and the seven miners trapped there are not expected to survive.

"Two miners have been confirmed dead after water seeped into a coal mine in the early hours of Wednesday in Dengfeng city, central China's Henan province."

China: Shipwreck leaves one drowned, two injured

"One member of a crew of six was drowned after the vessel carrying sand sank Wednesday afternoon after hitting rocks in the water off the coast of Xiamen in Fujian Province."

China: Two Chinese workers killed in Sudan

"Two Chinese workers were murdered last weekend on an oil field repair mission in Sudan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Tuesday."

China: Vocational training to be offered for to-be migrant rural labourers

"The Chinese government is planning to launch a national vocational training program targeting the 10 million to-be rural migrant laborers across the country, which will help them improve job skills and thus increaserural income."

Singapore: MOM move buys time for maid agents to get accredited

"A government ruling that all maid agencies must be accredited before they can renew their business licence has prompted only one-third of the 600-plus firms to comply."

Philippines: Labour group to press for wage hike

"The Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) will press for a wage increase once the effect of an increase in transport fares is felt, the group's spokesman said Wednesday."

Philippines: State workers promised 10% pay hike as election nears

The interesting detail here is contained in the penultimate sentence.

"Government employees will soon get a raise in their salaries and enjoy a slew of benefits. This after President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo approved on March 22 a memorandum of undertaking entered into by leaders of groups representing government employees and by Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo."ting detail here is contained in the penultimate sentence."

Philippines: Jeepney groups cripple transport in Visayas and Mindanao

"While most of their counterparts in Metro Manila decided to call off their threat of a two-day strike, jeepney groups in the provinces made good their promise to paralyze the transport system in their respective areas."

Thailand: State planner lashes out at EGAT 'mobsters'

"Foreign investor confidence is being heavily affected by the stalled privatisation of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand and violence in the South, according to Chakramon Phasukvanich, secretary-general of the National Economic and Social Development Board."

China: Sacked workers threaten to jump from high-rise [update]

An earlier story about two dozen laid-off employees of a Guangzhou hotel threatening to jump from its sixth-floor garden unless the company settled outstanding pension benefits has elicited comment from the Regional Secretary (Asia Pacific) of the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF), Ma Weipin.

Indonesia: The faces of multinationals

"In common with many other East Asian nations, as Indonesia has evolved from an agricultural economy to one whose GDP is led by manufacturing, it has emerged as a cheap location for multinational corporations to hire a cut-price labor force."

Cambodia: $250-per-night-hotel pays workers $1 per day

"In the middle of an intense campaign by the management of Cambodia's luxury hotels to deny workers their legal rights to monies collected via a service charge, a document from one of the country's top hotels has surfaced showing temporary contract workers are paid as low as US$1 a day (the point at which a person is considered to be in extreme poverty by the United Nations)."

Burma: Country needs positive, constructive assistance, says Chinese vice premier

"Chinese Vice-Premier Madam Wu Yi called last week for the international community to extend assistance to Myanmar in a “positive and constructive manner"."

China: The next IT outsourcing hotspot?

This should give people cause to ponder claims that large numbers of IT jobs in America are in jeopordy of being outsourced to China. Case in point: Microsoft wanted 100 software engineers, but out of 120,000 applications only 70 were found that actually met the criteria. I wonder also how this claim will be interpreted by those who like to compare India and China? Food for thought on several levels.

"Microsoft has found it difficult to satisfy its goal of recruiting 100 software engineers in China, sources with the Microsoft Research Asia Advanced Technology Center (ATC) said."

China: Rescue operation at Hunan gas blast coalmine halted [update]

An earlier story can be found here.

"Rescue operations with the gas explosion coalmine in central China's Hunan Province were forced to a standstill due to high concentration of carbon monoxide and destruction of the power-supply system beneath the shaft."

China: 7 people trapped in coal mine accident identified [update]

I posted a story earlier on the accident here. The original story stated six were missing. It seems there is little hope of finding the seven miners.

"Seven miners were identified and confirmed trapped in a coal mine in Tonghua City of northeast China's Jilin Province, said local sources Tuesday."

China: LNG explosion kills two in Shaanxi

"The explosion of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) tank killed two people and injured another two in a LNG station in this capital city of northwest China's Shaanxi Province Monday morning, local sources said Tuesday."

Philippines: Pinoys abandoning farms for urban domestic work

"More farmers and their scions are leaving the rural sector to find better job opportunities in urban areas, government data showed."