Baoding workers' march on Beijing shakes city officials

1,000 workers set out on 140km march to China's capital in fight for jobs and pensions

chinaworker.info reporters

The decision by thousands of textile workers in the Hebei city of Baoding to launch a daring march on Beijing has brought an immediate, and so far positive, result for their struggle for jobs and pensions. As the following report from Xinhua (4 April 2009) shows, the city government has been forced by the workers' action to jump to attention, sacking the head of the factory's communist party branch and promising an 'investigation' into the company's Hong Kong owners who have introduced sweeping job cuts and withheld payment of workers' wages and pension contributions. The workers of the Yimian Group have been involved in a long battle against the bosses since the factory was privatised in 2004. At one time, Yimian Group employed 10,000 workers in Baoding, but has been downsized to around a tenth of this force, with a further 400 jobs now to be axed.

Chinaworker.info fully supports the workers in their struggle, and believes their example, in organising a protest march to Beijing (which has been suspended for the time being - see report below), is of great significance to other workers in China fighting job losses and non-payment of wages. An article by Liang Wendao, first published on chinaworker (3 April), calling for the reversal of the privatisation process and for workers' democratic control and management of the factory, has been republished on other Chinese web forums, receiving over 10,000 hits over the weekend (4-5 April). Readers include workers from the Boading factory who have been in touch and commented approvingly on the article.

The workers have won an important initial advantage in their battle, but cannot rely on official promises or offers of 'investigations', which are classical tricks by officialdom to buy time and eventually demobilise workers' struggles. The distrust of the Baoding workers is shown by the fact that around 100 workers refused to turn back and are continuing their march on Beijing. If there is to be an 'investigation' of the Hong Kong asset-stripping company (Yafang Group, in which Indonesian capitalists and also Morgan Stanley of the US are involved), then workers should have the the right to elect their own representatives to this investigation. In the meantime, the factory should immediately reopen, with all job cuts withdrawn. Anything less than this should be rejected by the workers.

This is an extremely important struggle of Chinese workers in the face of a brutal economic crisis, and chinaworker.info hopes to translate more material into English for the benefit of international readers.

Party chief sacked after textile workers' protest march SHIJIAZHUANG, April 4 (Xinhua) --Authorities in north China's Hebei Province fired the Party boss of a local textile factory after more than 1,000 workers went on a protest march over privatization, job cuts and other grievances.     The decision to remove Wang Lijuan from the position of Party secretary of the Yimian Group, was read out by Lan Baoliang, head of the organization department of the Baoding City Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), at a workers rally Saturday morning.     Wang was replaced by Zhang Yanru, chief of the Baoding City State Assets Commission. The board of directors also suspended her job as its chairwoman.     More than 1,000 workers of the group began a 140-kilometer hike Friday from Baoding city to Beijing to protest the malpractice of the management.     The workers were stopped by government officials near Xushui county. All of them returned to Baoding early Saturday aboard buses at the persuasion of government officials.     Founded in 1994 on the basis of the Baoding No.1 Cotton Textile Factory, Yimian group was once among the top 50 textile companies in China.     The state-owned company was sold to Hong Kong-based Yafang group in January 2004.     The new owner promised to inject 50 million U.S. dollars into the company and properly handle its employees.     But according to vice mayor Liu Baoling, none of the promises were kept.     Before Friday's protest march, some Yimian Group workers aired grievances to the Baoding City Government and the company on March27 about 400 job cuts and poor treatment. They also complained that the group always pays their salaries one month later.     Liu said at Saturday's rally that he had been interviewing workers about existing problems within Yimian for the past eight day.     Liu admitted problems in the privatization process and said: "The government will work together with the workers to press the Hong Kong investor to fulfill its responsibilities."     "We will try the best to solve the problems via negotiations. But if it has to be solved in the court, the government will bear the fees," said Liu.     He said it is wrong for the Yimian group to pay workers one month behind and that the group must correct this mistake immediately.     People from the departments for disciplinary inspection, public security and the procuratorate went to Yimian to make further investigations Friday, according to Si Cunxi, secretary for disciplinary inspection of the Baoding City CPC Committee.     Deputy Party Secretary of Baoding City, Li Jianfang, pledged to investigate into what he called an inherited problem and vowed to bring to justice whoever is responsible.     He appealed for workers' support to the government investigation, which he said will be fast and efficient.