Chinese Women Migrants Workers under Economic Downturn
May Wong
(This article was first published in Alternatives Economiques, France in February 2009.
Website: http://www.alternatives-economiques.fr/redacteurs )
China’s economic downturn has begun and is forcing tens of thousands of factories to close. It is expected that the present 9.4 percent of unemployment will rise further. The authority is anxious about the present waves of strikes or road blocking by workers may turn into riots when the unemployed workers have nowhere else to go.
The advantage of China, however, is that most of the unemployed workers have somewhere to go, namely, going back to their home village in far away provinces. It is because under the “Hukou Zhidu”, or “household registration system”, they are “Nongminggong”, or “peasant workers”, who are of peasant’s origin, hence second class citizens who enjoy no permanent right of residencies in the cities, therefore not entitled to social welfare as enjoyed by city dwellers. Being impossible to sink roots in the cities and without a network of relatives and local community, these rural migrant workers have nowhere to go but return to their home village when they lost their jobs. As early as November 2008, four to nine million of migrant workers had returned home because of factories closure. For the present moment, when Chinese New Year Holiday is just a few days away, the absolute majority of the 150 million rural migrant workers will eventually go back home anyway. In the past years they will all return to cities for work after the holiday, but this year will be quite different given the economic downturn. The pieces of land which peasants are entitled to use will not enough to provide enough income for them to survive, but it somehow provides some kind of safety net for them during unemployment. It also gives more leverage to the municipal governments in controlling social unrest. A Hong Kong based China labor researcher describes migrant workers being sent back to rural when they lose their jobs as “disposable labour”.
The Chinese government announced a 4 trillion yuan of rescue package to boost economic growth and provide support to debt ridden firms. On the other hand, despite rhetoric of helping workers, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security declared a wage freeze on minimum wages on 17 November ‘in order to help the firms to stand against the economic downturn’. Soon the Guangdong Provincial ACFTU (All China Federation of Trade Unions) advised workers that they must stick together with their bosses to overcome the crisis and as such, collective consultation over wages in those enterprises which face difficulties would be suspended. The Guangzhou Daily told workers that ‘all parties involved are required to contribute to overcome the difficulties together’1. What is more outrageous is that in early January 2009 the Procuratorate of Guangdong instructed its officers to relax the enforcement of criminal charges against employers troubled by the economic downturn, while 30 workers, among them ten are women, from the Foshan Lighting in Foshan city, Guangdong Province ---a subsidiary of Siemens---- were arrested for protesting the cutting of their wages in November 2008, and several of them still remain in custody today.
In general, rural women migrants are particularly oppressed just because of their gender. Of the 150 million rural migrant workers, one third of them are women. In the Export Processing Zones, however, the majority of workers are women instead. When asked why he favors women over men, a manager replied: ‘apart from lower wages, female workers are easier to handle with, while handling male workers are more difficult, because they are less likely to endure the cruelty of sweatshops. Cases of violent fighting between male workers and the management were reported from time to time.’ As for women workers, since they mainly come from rural where women has been oppressed for thousand years and therefore tends to be more obedient, they tend to be more tolerant even when unscrupulously exploited. In addition to tradition, the fact that they have little access to legal advice, have little knowledge of their own rights etc; make them easy prey of irresponsible management.
A study found out that rural women migrants earn 566.7 yuan a month in 2002, which is 24% below those of the male who earn 743.2 yuan2. The kind of jobs which rural migrant can get are mostly informal jobs, hence most of their contracts only last for a year. Another study shows that in 2002, below 30 percent of informal workers enjoy pension fund and less than 10 percent of them enjoyed some form of medical insurance, while the figures for city dwellers were 46 percent and 31 percent respectively. Again, rural women migrants are the least protected. While 20 percent of male workers in the informal sectors were covered by pension, only 16.1 percent of female were covered. 3
According to the laws, women workers are entitled to the so called “Four Period of protection”, which covers women’s rights during menstrual, pregnancy, maternity and breast-feeding. For instance, employers have to provide facilities for breast feeding women workers. Jiang Yue, a professor at the Xiamen University, points out that these laws are frequently violated. Her survey finds out that 75.1 percent of factories do not provide any facilities for breast feeding at all. 4
In EPZs the daily working hours is as much as 10-12. In times of rushing through orders, workers working from 8am to 10pm are common, and in some cases they may work until 2am. Workers find it hard to cope with such hard labor, but refusing to work over time will result in firing. Only youngsters in their late teen and early twenties could endure such inhumane hardship. It is common that even when workers could stand no more of the hardship and want to resign, the employers simply refuse to accept their resignation, and withhold the wages of these workers as a penalty when the latter decided to go anyway. Those who can afford to consult ‘bare-foot’ lawyers (who are self taught people with no legal rights to practice laws) will seek help from the latter to write complain letter for them to make the employers letting them go and paying their wages before they leave.
When women workers reach their late twenties they will find it hard to continue working like this, and it is the time they have to leave on their own account, thus relieving the management the burden of paying any compensation if the latter fire them.
Most rural women migrants are young and have lower secondary education. Having higher self esteem and more aware of the need of self development, they are very different from rural women of the past. In her book Rural Women in Urban China: Gender, Migration, and Social Change, Tamara Jacka reported her surveys, one of which find out that 48.9 percent of interviewed women choose “self development” as the reason for migrating to cities. However, the household registration system is particularly damaging to the human development and social mobility of rural women migrants. It is therefore not accidental that 46.6 percent of the interviewed women said that the biggest obstacle for their staying in the cities is the discrimination against “outsiders” like them. 5
One’s household registration is a hereditary identity which passes to one’s children. Once you are “rural household”, then your children and your grand children will carry the birth mark throughout their lives. Both Anita Chan and Au Loong Yu considered the Chinese household registration system as similar to a kind of apartheid. 6“Until 1998 the system would further discriminate against rural women. Children would inherit their rural identity from their mother rather than their father. The serious consequence was Chinese rural women were being robbed any chance of upward social mobility through marrying with an urban man. While a rural male migrant might be able to get urban residence permit through marrying an urban woman, a rural woman migrant could not. This was why urban men would resist marriage to rural women; otherwise their children would inherit their mother’s rural hukou, a severe decline in status that few would accept. This regime was particularly designed to exclude rural women and their children from becoming permanent urban residents, thus relegating them to the status of third class citizens.” 7
Tamara Jacka recorded the story of a rural woman migrant who was lucky enough to have a man who owns Beijing city household to marry her. She soon found out that her marriage also brought them bitterness. Marrying a rural woman cost the man an apartment provided by his work unit, because such benefit is only reserved for couples who own city household. Therefore the family has to stay in poor quality rented houses. In addition to this is that their little daughter becomes heihu, or illegal people who have no proper paper to live in the cities, which was the result of bureaucratic red tape under the household registration system. 8
22 January 2009
Guangzhou Daily, 19 November 2008.
China Employment Report 2003-4, China Labor Social Protection Press, 2004, p. 211
Research on Informal Employment and Labour Relations, by Shi Meixia, China Labor Social Protection Press, 2007, p. 44-5.
Research on Rights Protection of Chinese Rural Migrant Workers, Law Press, 2006, p. 111-2.
Chinese edition of the book, published by Jiangsu People’s Press, 2006, p. 138 and 225.
Peter Alexander and Anita Chan: Does China have an Apartheid Pass System? Journal of Ethinic and Migration Studies, Vol 30, no.4, July 2004. Au Loong Yu, Women Migrant Workers under the Chinese Social Apartheid, Committee for Asian Women, 2007.
Au Loong Yu, Women Migrant Workers under the Chinese Social Apartheid, Committee for Asian Women, 2007, p.9.
Chinese edition of the book, published by Jiangsu People’s Press, 2006, chapter three.
Impact of Financial Tsunami on women workers: Six cases
24 Jan, 2009
Since the global financial tsunami, Chinese factories lost production orders from overseas buyers. To cut costs, lots of factory owners made the workers bear the consequences. There have been lots of worker protests against layoffs, held and delayed wages, wage cuts and deterioration of working conditions and terms in different parts of China. Many workers who take the lead protesting against the violations are beaten up and detained. Here are some of the disputes involving women migrant workers:
1. In October 2008, Henan province had a number of worker protests demanding held wages, Workers took to the streets blocking roads and railways to protest and a large number of police officers are called in to disperse the demonstrators. On Oct 7, more than 500 workers of Jiaozuo Textile Mill tried to block the railway in the afternoon and about 10 women workers successfully jumped onto the tracks, but they were quickly taken away by police. At 6pm, more than 100 public security officers came and dispersed the crowd.
2. In Dec 10, 2008 Boluo South Industrial Park, Huizhou, electronics employees Suspected factory secretly closing down by moving machines to its other factory in Dongguan.
Zhi-Feng Electronics Co., Ltd., headquartered in Hong Kong, mainly manufactures electronic switches and exports Europe and America. In 2002, the company started with 1,000 employees. Over the past two years, hit by the financial turmoil, the workforce is not only around 100 employees.
In the morning of Dec 6, 2008, the company shipped equipment to its other factory in Dongguan. The workers were very puzzled and reckoned the company is moving operations to its other factory in Dongguan which is two hours away from Bolu. More than 20 logistics staff and guards decided to block the gate and stop the trucks to leave the factory.
The manager explained, "We are not moving plants, only transfer part of the business to Dongguan." "We strictly abide by labor laws." He insisted that the move was just a normal business transfer and material flow and thus was no need for prior notification of the logistics staff. But the workers did not accept his explanation and they made two day collective absenteeism and collective resignation on Dec 8.
As a result, more than 20 support staff had signed an agreement to leave the company and they got back their wages and compensation based on the length of years of service. But they still have grievances. "We have been working here for five years, and the company did not even want to say goodbye to us in advance!" The women cook believed that they were lucky. If the security guards did not lock the gate, the company may have already gone secretly.
3. 20 Dec 2008--Shoe factory women workers in Dongguan demanding held wages are arrested!
The wages of the women migrant workers had been held for a few months and some were held up to six months and workers needed the money to take home for the Chinese New Year. Many of them petitioned on the street for two days in order to get passerbys’ support. They also petition to the municipal government, and in the morning of December 20, Ms. Yi, the woman worker negotiator on behalf of workers was taken away by the Dongguan police.
4. 16 Jan 2009 -- Dongguan Labor Bureau officials Watched Women Workers beaten up by hooligans
The owner of Lucy garment factory (Dongguan, Guangdong) disappeared and all the workers were unable to get their held wages. Jan 15, when more than 70 workers, mainly migrant women, demanding their held wages at the factory's gate, they were violently attacked and beaten by the police brigade and triad bandits. As a result, five women workers were injured and they had to pay their own medical expenses. Witness said: When the violence happened, the factory put out all the lights to stop people taking pictures and the Labor Bureau of Dongguan City officials and the factory owners were present at the scene.
5. 26 December, 2008 --"Boss of Foshan HZY Ceramics factory disappeared and workers blocked the road demanding back wages. 6 workers were detained and one of them is a woman. (Source: [Nanfang Dushi Bao] www.nddaily.com)
Nov 25, the boss, "disappeared" and more than 300 workers gathered together at a main road demanding their wages and compensation. The Foshan departments mobilized nearly 1000 riot policemen at the scene and the police warned workers to take legal means to fight for their rights instead of blocking the traffic.
Foshan HZY Ceramics Co. Ltd. locates in a small village in Foshan. According to workers, the factory has more than 500 workers. On the 20th, when suppliers did not supply as usual, and the tile factory came to take back the materials, they knew that the boss has gone. The factory owed them two months’ wages. So they decided to block the road to attract the attention of the relevant government departments.
The Foshan police admitted that they detained six workers working for HZY Ceramics Co., Ltd. and one of them is a woman Ms. Ng. They were detained 10 days as a punishment.
6. Jan 2009 – In Dec 25 Foshan Lighting (FSL), a listing company known as “the Lighting Champion” in China has made a serious wage-cut (one-third of workers’ monthly wages) since September 2008. Outrageous workers made several protests to demand for negotiations with management. Yet, FSL rejected workers’ demand thus workers decided to organise stronger actions. On 25 & 26 Dec 2008, several hundreds workers blocked a main road for 5 hours and a few got caught by police and were beaten. To police continued to hunt and arrested workers and altogether more than 30 workers are arrested and among them more than 10 are women. Until Lunar New Year eve, most of the workers have not been released.