Labour Rights

China is currently the world’s leading producer and exporter of leather, it is also the world's largest shoe manufacturer and exporter. In 2014, China's leather output exceeded 590 million square meters, more than all other leather-producing countries combined. In 2014, the Chinese footwear industry was estimated to be worth about EUR 94 billion. 

As of 27 June 2019, at least 28 construction workers were confirmed dead, including five women and rescue teams had pulled out another 26 injured. Amongst the injured were two 16-year-olds, a girl and a boy. All victims are now at Preah Sihanouk Referral Hospital. The victims were migrant workers from other Cambodian provinces.

The struggle of Changchun FAW-Volkswagen dispatch workers to defend their right to be paid equally for equal work started in November 2016. They adopted tactics, ranging from meeting with the pro-management union, holding public assemblies, processions, and protests, to urge the automotive joint venture to resolve the wage disparity between dispatch workers and permanent workers, despite carrying out the same duties. However, as the dispute rumbled on, three elected workers’ representatives were also arrested by the police. Representatives Wang Shuai and Ai Zhenyu were later released on bail pending trial, while Fu Tianbo was under criminal detention until February 2019.

Tech workers in China started a GitHub repository titled 996.ICU, a reference to the grueling and illegal working hours of many tech companies in China - from 9am to 9pm, 6 days a week. "By following the '996' work schedule, you are risking yourself getting into the ICU (Intensive Care Unit)," says the 996.ICU GitHub project description. The project calls for Chinese tech companies to obey the labor laws in China and the international labor convention.

China has undergone dramatic economic changes since it implemented its reform and open policy in 1979.

Labour NGOs have played a role, especially in southern China, in raising Chinese workers’ consciousness. This paper takes a historical perspective and argues that the relationship between labour NGOs and workers has changed in the past three decades, from one of workers’ dependency on Chinese labour NGOs and these NGOs’ dependency, in turn, on foreign NGOs in an asymmetrical relationship, to one more of partnership.

Since November 2016, more than 3,000 dispatched workers at FAW-Volkswagen(Note 1) in Jilin Changchun Province have been protesting against the illegal employment of dispatch workers by the company and seeking "equal pay and equal treatment" to permanent workers.   

Supporters of the magazine "Leihkeule" raise awareness of events at FAW-VW. For a year, there has been a conflict in China involving agency workers at the FAW-VW joint venture in Changchun.…

Due to the new FNGO law preventing labor rights groups from receiving financial support from foreign donors and Wal-Mart China’s fierce attacks on labor rights at its shops in China, WCWA decided to use a crowd funding campaign online to raise funds to support Wal-Mart employees nationwide with their legal actions against Wal-Mart’s forcing workers to accept the flexible working hours system in the workplace. The WCWA has successfully raised CNY 50,000 (€ 6,300) and this is solely being used to cover attorneys’ fees for workers. The Association has provided detailed and effective legal support for the Wal-Mart employees, including preparing documents for litigation (arbitration), strategies and collecting evidence. The Association mainly supports those with financial difficulties in hiring lawyers for their litigation.

On 21 June, the Walmart Chinese Workers’ Association (WCWA) announced in its blog that it and its American counterpart, OUR Walmart (Organisation United for Respect at Walmart), had joined hands in cyberspace to discuss how to move forward in their struggle against Walmart. This marks a new stage in recent Chinese labour history. This time the news is not about a leader of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), the official government trade union, shaking hands with a leader from a foreign trade union. Nor is it Han Dongfang, the well-known director of the Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin, shaking hands with the world’s trade union leaders. Instead, a group of workers have themselves, through persistent efforts to break through Chinese walls, finally succeeded in reaching out to co-workers overseas. This is the culmination of a number of breakthroughs in the last ten years.