Labour Rights

New article written by Anita Chan. " It’s been chiseled into the minds of Chinese bureaucrats – they must “maintain social stability” to climb the career ladder. This amounts to a license for clamping down on any sign of disturbance. Increasing numbers of strikes have been met with vigorous suppression."

Due to Artigas’ unpaid social insurance and housing funds, more than one thousand workers of Shenzhen Artigas Leatherwear Co. Ltd. (Qing Sheng) went on strike on December 10, 2014. The strikers demand the company pay in full the unpaid social insurance and housing funds. The strikers even stay over many nights at open space near the factory gate in order to stop the shipping of products.  Below is the translation of the statement released by the striking Artigas workers on December 18th immediately after the suppression and arrests. In this sense, the statement is still a good reference for the direct voice of the strikers.  

A coalition of Cambodian garment workers’ unions has called on workers and labor rights supporters around the world to demand multinational apparel brands producing in Cambodia raise the wages.

June 20, More than 40 people from Hong Kong and Indonesia labour gorups gathered in front of the adidas office in Hong Kong to show solidarity to the workers in China and Indonesia. They are the Chinese workers in disputes with Dongguan Yue Yuen and Guangzhou Dynamic Casting, and the 1300 Indonesia workers from PDK who were unfairly dismissed in 2012. Among these factories, there is one thing in common: they are all producing for the international footwear giant adidas.

Between 5 April and 28 April 2014, workers from Yue Yuen Dongguan factory have gone on strike. Striker size flew up from 1,000 to 50,000 in only few days. Almost all factory workers have joined the strike, including frontline production workers and various ranking management staff. This shows the anger of workers towards government and the company has reached the limit. Reports say the strike expansion to Yue Yuen’s Jiangxi factory too. Until intervention of massive police force which forced the strikers to go back to work at the end of the month, the strike was forced to come to an end.

Today (30 May 2014), labour organizations in Hong Kong stage a demonstration at the Annual General Meeting of Yue Yuen (0551.HK) against the ambiguous arrangement on the compensation of social insurance to the workers.

Since 5 April 2014, workers from Yue Yuen Dongguan factory have gone on strike. Striker size flew up from 1,000 to 50,000 in only few days. Almost all factory workers have joined the strike. This shows the anger of workers towards government and the company has reached the limit. The dispute was triggered by the conspiracybetween the Yue Yuen factory and the local government– The factory did not fully pay social insurance for the workers and the local government officials did not observe this unlawful practice. Workers also discovered the work contracts they are holding are not legally valid. They request the factory to pay back pension and housing provident fundarrear payment, re-sign valid work contract and raise the wage.

On April 5, 2014, several thousand workers, out of 60,000 from Yue Yuen Dongguan, the world's largest maker of athletic shoes, took to the streets and gathered at the highway to protest against the violations of Yue Yuen Industrial Holdings Ltd. Yue Yuen, is a Taiwanese giant shoe manufacturer that operates in south China, producing shoes for global brands including Nike, Adidas, Reebok, ASICS, New Balance, Puma, Converse, Salomon and Timberland. According to a news report, Yue Yuen is the largest supplier for Adidas’ production in China, and Adidas has an unescapable responsibility to ensure that Yue Yuen follows the China Laws.

"Compensation for occupational diseases is yet to be fully resolved . Though appreciate to see slightly improvement, we regret to Adidas does "not guarantee all workers free from occupational diseases"

In April 2013,  Chinese Working Women Network (CWWN), Labour Education and Service Network (LESN), Labour Action China (LAC), and Globalization Monitor have submitted a joint report on China's labor rights situation to the United Nations Human Rights Council together.