CHANGPING (China) - Scarce jobs, falling wages, sputtering assembly lines and labour scams are some of the rising problems faced by millions of Chinese migrant workers struggling to weather the downturn in export hubs like Guangdong.
Twenty million workers have lost their jobs in Guangdong alone as economic growth has slumped, but flareups of social unrest have not materialised since workers began returning en masse in early February from the Chinese New Year holiday.
Beijing’s Communist Party leadership has issued repeated warnings that legions of idle rural workers could pose a threat to social stability.
China must guard against ‘hostile forces’ within and outside the country working to stir up trouble among its masses of newly unemployed workers, a senior trade union official said in comments published on Wednesday.
While it appears some factories are still hiring, the supply is limited and patchy and wages have come down sharply.
‘Factories have job posters but it doesn’t mean they need workers. They’ll only call us if they have an order,’ said Li Gang, a jobless migrant from Hunan, who was sitting with a friend on a patch of grass smoking ‘Double Happiness’ brand cigarettes.
For Xiao Tao, a worker from Sichuan who has toiled in factories for nine years with the goal of one day starting his own business, the new reality has been difficult to accept.
‘I’m looking for a better job,’ he said while chatting with a roadside job tout recruiting for a garment factory in Fujian. ‘Those jobs paying 1,000 yuan aren’t much use to me. I’m looking for something close to 2,000 yuan,’ he added.
‘I think though that eventually I might have to adjust my expectations.’ As demand for work grows, some factories and touts have begun openly recruiting for jobs paying less than the minimum wage in clear violation of labour laws.
Anecdotes are also growing of workers getting duped by job touts and ‘black-hearted bosses’ fleeing factories and leaving workers in the lurch with months of unpaid wages.
Even for those with work, job security has been diminishing. Smaller factories with no new orders have been asking idle staff to take days off and even to forego basic wages.
‘We get no regular salary now ... we just get paid for the number of clothes we stitch - two to three yuan for each bundle of a dozen items,’ said a short, dark-haired girl from Sichuan, who would only give her surname as Chen.
A woman strolling with Ms Chen through a shopping mall during a factory shutdown period said the incentive for staying on was the free food and accommodation. ‘We’ve been told by our boss that only in April or May will we get a regular wage,’ she said.
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Chinese wages tumble
Reuters
20 February 2009
CHANGPING (China) - Scarce jobs, falling wages, sputtering assembly lines and labour scams are some of the rising problems faced by millions of Chinese migrant workers struggling to weather the downturn in export hubs like Guangdong.
Twenty million workers have lost their jobs in Guangdong alone as economic growth has slumped, but flareups of social unrest have not materialised since workers began returning en masse in early February from the Chinese New Year holiday.
Beijing’s Communist Party leadership has issued repeated warnings that legions of idle rural workers could pose a threat to social stability.
China must guard against ‘hostile forces’ within and outside the country working to stir up trouble among its masses of newly unemployed workers, a senior trade union official said in comments published on Wednesday.
While it appears some factories are still hiring, the supply is limited and patchy and wages have come down sharply.
‘Factories have job posters but it doesn’t mean they need workers. They’ll only call us if they have an order,’ said Li Gang, a jobless migrant from Hunan, who was sitting with a friend on a patch of grass smoking ‘Double Happiness’ brand cigarettes.
For Xiao Tao, a worker from Sichuan who has toiled in factories for nine years with the goal of one day starting his own business, the new reality has been difficult to accept.
‘I’m looking for a better job,’ he said while chatting with a roadside job tout recruiting for a garment factory in Fujian. ‘Those jobs paying 1,000 yuan aren’t much use to me. I’m looking for something close to 2,000 yuan,’ he added.
‘I think though that eventually I might have to adjust my expectations.’ As demand for work grows, some factories and touts have begun openly recruiting for jobs paying less than the minimum wage in clear violation of labour laws.
Anecdotes are also growing of workers getting duped by job touts and ‘black-hearted bosses’ fleeing factories and leaving workers in the lurch with months of unpaid wages.
Even for those with work, job security has been diminishing. Smaller factories with no new orders have been asking idle staff to take days off and even to forego basic wages.
‘We get no regular salary now ... we just get paid for the number of clothes we stitch - two to three yuan for each bundle of a dozen items,’ said a short, dark-haired girl from Sichuan, who would only give her surname as Chen.
A woman strolling with Ms Chen through a shopping mall during a factory shutdown period said the incentive for staying on was the free food and accommodation. ‘We’ve been told by our boss that only in April or May will we get a regular wage,’ she said.
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