CHINA: Miners clash with security guards
Updated
A human rights group in Hong Kong says more than 2,000 miners took part in a strike earlier this month in China's Hunan Province. The Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy says the strike ended after violent clashes between miners and security guards. The workers say they were offered unfair compensation for the loss of their jobs.
Presenter: Xiaoning Mo
Speakers: Li Qiang, Chairman of China Labor Watch; Dr. Nicholas Becquelin, China researcher at Human Rights Watch
MO: Reports say the Tanjiashan pit -- a state-own mine -- has announced plans to sack almost a thousand miners after one of its pits went bankrupt due to a lack of coal. The company's board had promised each laid-off miner 1100 RMB, worth around $US130, in compensation for each year's service with the company. The miners say this is nowhere near enough. One miner claims the company's compensation fund holds around $US90 million, and says each miner should get at least $13,000 dollars. In support of this bid, around two-thousand miners from Tanjiashan went on strike earlier this month. According to the Hong-Kong based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, the mine hired more than 100 security guards to beat the miners, leaving two men seriously injured. A staff member at the mine who wanted to remain anonymous told me the situation was brought under control last Friday, with staff back at work. But she gave no further details on the dispute. Mr Li Qiang, Chairman of China Labor Watch says this is not an isolated event, and says miners' rights are regularly abused.
LI: These workers have no choice. They have no rights as they are the weak force and unable to negotiate with the employers. Once they try to fight back, the local government and the employers will collude with each other. The mine employers employ private security personnel or even mafia to beat the miners. If these secret deals between local government and other parties didn't take place, this violence couldn't be carried out.
MO: According to Dr. Nicholas Becquelin, a China researcher at Human Rights Watch, it's not that the Chinese central government is unaware of this problem or that there is a lack of legislation. Rather, he says, the implementation of these regulations is weak and there is no independent body protecting the miners' rights.
BECQUELIN: Miners and workers are not able to organise independently, there are no independent trade unions in China. Therefore miners are very well placed to know that it's very difficult to obtain compensation or to obtain respect of safety measures in China just because they have absolutely no leverage.
MO: Mr. Li Qiang, Chairman of China Labor Watch, agrees that the workers are at the bottom of the power hierarchy in China's rapidly developing economy.
LI: During the state-owned enterprises' transition period, the local government protects their own interests, the employers protect their own interests. But who protects the workers interests? Theoretically, the workers interests should be protected by the national trade union. But the national trade union represents the government. So during this economic boom, nobody is helping the workers.
MO: Human Rights Watch spokesman Nicholas Becquelin says there is evidence that the Chinese government is resisting pressure to improve pay and conditions for workers partly to keep labour costs low and to attract more foreign investment.
BECQUELIN: In China because workers have so few rights the employers are able to maintain artificially very, very low wages, and this is what makes China very attractive in terms of production costs. This is why China attracts so many foreign investments, and this is China's comparative advantage. So the Chinese government is not interested in getting better rights protection for workers because it will translate into an increase of wages and an increase in the cost of production.
