Rural Chongqing Teachers Strike

• Date: Oct 23 2008 Time: 10:23
• Description:
  From CLB: China’s 1993 Teachers’ Law gives school teachers the same status as local civil servants, and a wide range of guarantees designed to protect their income and benefits. However, as with all laws designed to protect the interests of workers in China, the implementation of the Teachers’ Law has been less than thorough on the ground. In rural Chongqing, for example, teachers’ salaries are currently about one third or even one quarter of other government employees. In late October and early November 2008, primary and middle school teachers from several rural counties and districts in Chongqing staged a series of strikes demanding higher pay. CLB Director Han Dongfang talked to three teachers, including a teachers’ representative who took part in the negotiations with the local government, about teaching conditions in Chongqing, the strikes, and their frustration at the lack of government action. Han Dongfang’s first interview was with a teacher from Sanhui Primary School in Qijiang County, who did not participate in the strike and preferred not to give his name. This teacher, a 14-year veteran with a salary of just over 1,000 yuan per month, said that although there was no strike activity at his school, “Of course I’m not satisfied with the current level of pay. We primary school teachers…no matter what we are feeling, when we are in the classroom we feel we should respect the children and respect our education work. But in terms of wages, to be honest…actually, the Teachers Law and the Compulsory Education Law both require that our wages not be lower or higher than the level of local government employees. But the government has really not achieved this. We certainly are not very happy about this, and then there is price inflation…in 20 years we still would not be able to afford a house…everyone in this profession is without a permanent place to live, this certainly impacts on education.” “To tell the truth,” the teacher continued, “teachers here, especially in our school, have a lot of complaints. But we are still doing our job; we do rather well in terms of teachers’ ethics. Other schools, as far as I understand, many schools, are conducting ‘soft strikes’ or formal strikes, that sort of thing.” This teacher’s school was in a remote location but was “rather well known” and had been visited by government officials and experts, and was even the subject of a report on the television news. “Why do we do so well?” the teacher asked. “The key is the spirit of sacrifice on the part of our teachers.” But, the teacher continued, “Although our teachers did not participate in the strikes, we are paying attention to the issue…the teachers certainly supported the strikes.” This teacher indicated that there was more at stake than simply wage levels: “Although it is a question of wages and benefits, it actually manifests more as a question of teachers’ status… We feel like our Teachers Law and Compulsory Education Law are only there for display, like puppets.” Talent drifting away to the cities Another difficulty facing the school was the loss of teachers to urban schools which offered better pay and benefits. “Especially the younger teachers, they adapt well to our new curriculum reforms…they have a greater ability to meet teaching challenges…so, countless teachers either find connections or pass the test to get into the city schools, and the benefits at city schools are much better, so the loss of our teaching resources is quite serious.” In looking at the whole situation, “We feel quite helpless, really.” The teacher indicated that this situation did nothing to improve the urban-rural education gap, which the government had acknowledged and was ostensibly trying to resolve. The government and the Education Commission have been giving teachers the line that, “the merit pay (绩效工资) system is coming,” this primary school teacher continued. But “the teachers’ resentment is focused…on the autumn of 2007…when the government employees were beginning to implement merit pay. They promised us…they would begin paying it to the teachers in January of 2008. But when January came, nothing happened. Then the government and Education Commission told us that it would be in June of 2008. When June, 2008 came, we were told we needed to take the national situation into account due to the May 12 earthquake and the Olympics; now the state is busy with other things and this work has stopped temporarily. They said September of 2008, but it was not implemented then, either.” When asked about the role played by the union, the teacher said that although all of the teachers were union members, the union was “totally powerless” to intervene on their behalf. The teacher said that all the union did was explain “that state policies were still being formulated, and an emergency meeting was being held by the Chongqing municipal finance and human resources bureaus and their response to the teachers would be posted on the internet. Now it is on the Education Commission website, and it says that when government’s policy comes out, Chongqing will implement teacher merit pay as soon as possible. Actually, I went to the website of the municipal Education Commission in Nanchang in Jiangxi, and I could see that their merit pay has already been implemented.” This was also the case in Guangdong. “If the state policy were not formulated yet,” continued the teacher, “places like the city of Nanchang, I would think, certainly would not be able to set such a policy, do you see?” This teacher provided the phone number of another teacher, Mr. Tao, who had recently arrived to teach at a rural school which had participated in the strike. Mr. Tao said the action at his school began on 23 October, but he was careful to point out that the teachers did not strike by cancelling classes. “We are all in class; I did not say strike. We are just gradually reducing the amount of lecturing by teachers and allowing, cultivating the students capacity for self-study and self-research. It is not a strike.” Tao called it “cooperative study,” in which the students work with each other and the teachers “intervene a bit.” Tao acknowledged that they were “trying this out for the first time.” The action lasted for about a week, and the school had already basically returned to its usual teaching protocols. The action resulted in the county-level Education Commission stating that it would come up with a “quick resolution,” with regard to the issue of wages and benefits. Local government stalling One day before the interview with Tao, teacher representatives held a meeting with Party and government officials, representatives of the county Education Commission, and school principals; attendees at the meeting numbered over 70. Each of the 20 schools attending had two representatives, one chosen by the administration, and one recommended by fellow teachers. One of the teacher-designated representatives told Han that the government was stalling and playing for time. “There was no response; they were just trying to placate us,” he said. This teacher said his colleagues did not bother to go to the union with their problems, because the “they don’t believe in their own organization! And they are rather weak…they perform almost no function.” There was no union representative at the negotiation meeting. The teacher believed that there was “some sincerity” on the government side during the negotiation, but he was “not optimistic; there is still no response at all…the actual problem was not resolved.” The teachers’ most basic demand, said this teacher representative, was to “carry out the requirements of the Teachers Law” in terms of wages and benefits. “The merit pay system for government workers began last year; it is already being implimented,” the teacher continued. “Now our wage level is approximately only one third or possibly one quarter of that of government workers…[we want to] close the gap!” The government’s response at the meeting included a statement that there was “difficulty for the local government in terms of financial expenditure,” said the teacher, as well as a statement that “a specific solution was being studied and was not ready yet.” No specific timeline was given; “they just asked us to wait!” The teacher representative acknowledged that, if the teachers were to push too hard, “it certainly would not make the leadership happy, right?” There was a certain amount of concern about the teachers’ lives being made more difficult as a result of the strike action. The action started with about 80 percent participation by teachers in the county, but after “the leadership did some work” to dissuade teachers, only 20 schools, or about one fifth of the county schools, were represented at the meeting. Asked if the teachers would take similar action again if no positive results were forthcoming, the representative said, “To tell you the truth, I support education work and I love the students and the school. But now, truthfully, first off, teachers’ wages are just too low. If we are having some difficulties with our family, if we have difficulty just supporting our families, we’ll really not have the heart to do our education work well. This is a common sentiment among teachers.” He agreed that the situation might lead to more teachers leaving, and “also another phenomenon, which is, if we continue as things are, and even if teachers return to class, they may be demoralized and slack off in their work. This might become a common thing in the county or even the whole municipality. This might seriously impact the quality of education overall.” From Epoch Times: Over 5,000 teachers in Liaoning Province in northeast China have been on strike for days calling for salary increases and better benefits. While the authorities have not officially responded, school leaders are trying every means to put down the strike. The strike in Changtu County, Tieling City is one of many large-scale teacher strikes that have broken out across China in 2008 to demand fair treatment. Teachers in Changtu complained that teachers’ salaries in their county are the lowest in the city, about 300 yuan (US$44.12) to 1,000 yuan ($146.63) lower than nearby counties each month. Besides, teachers said, local authorities have been delaying their payment since 1986 and still owe them wages. They also accused the local officials for deducing pension and unemployment insurance fees from their salaries without their consent as well as embezzling educational funds. A local teacher said she was paid only 1,183.6 yuan ($174.06) each month. With current soaring prices, teachers like her can hardly make ends meet. “Who can focus on teaching when we are hardly able to feed ourselves and pay for our kids’ education?” she said. But organizing a strike is never easy in China. Teachers even do not dare to elect a representative to negotiate with authorities because everyone fears revenge from the government. Local officials ordered school administrators to monitor their teachers, and threatened to fire those who fail to control the teachers. In response, school administrators are trying their best to prevent teachers from striking. Some administrators threatened to fire teachers who participate in the assemblies, and some even shut teachers inside the schools and guarded the school gates themselves. A local teacher said the county officials sat in their classrooms everyday to watch the teachers and make sure they cannot petition to higher authorities. The same teacher, who has been working for her school for 22 years, also reported that the teachers’ cell phones and computers are all under surveillance, and that her school’s internet access had been cut off. From Aboluowang: 從10月23日早上8：00開始直至現在，重慶市綦江縣十幾所中小學近千名教師陸陸續續集體罷課，抗議教師工資待遇極低，貧富懸殊過大，無法生存。由於政府不但不執行《義務教育法》和《教師法》中的教師待遇不低於或率高於公務員的法律規定。而且政府又欺上瞞下，虛報教師工資數據！還多次欺騙教師，在新聞媒體和網絡上造謠，多次欺騙教師要漲工資，但實際上卻遲遲不見行動！並且，教師們又被告知，政府其他事業單位人員也將參照公務員待遇執行，唯獨隻字不提教師！對此，大部分教師採用學生上自習的方式抗議，部分學校教師情緒激動，在學校操場集中，拒不進入教室！而更有學生為教師聲援，打着「維護教師合法權益」的標語準備遊行，後被校長發現制止，才未遊行成功！可憐啊，教師的權益，居然要學生來維護！ 1，政府拒不執行《義務教育法》中第四章第三十一條「教師的平均工資水平應當不低於當地 公務員的平均工資水平。」和《教師法》中第六章第二十五條「第二十五條教師的平均工資水平應當不低於或者高於國家公務員的平均工資水平，並逐步提高。建立正常晉級增薪制度，具體辦法由國務院規定。」這兩條法律條款。 2，政府多次在新聞上發表教師提高教師待遇的消息，但實際情況卻沒有執行，使得社會誤認為教師的工資已經很高了，老師們心中對此也有氣。 3，政府前兩年就執行了「陽光工資」，而政府多次在網上造謠，說教師的「績效工資」就要來臨，教師長期被欺騙，終於覺醒了！ 4，政府其他事業單位的待遇今年將參照公務員執行，而同為事業單位編製的教師，這次改革，卻被排斥在外，教師們也不滿意。 5，去年和今年的通貨膨脹特別厲害，CPI長期居高不下，單靠教師的那點固定工資，根本就是杯水車薪，普遍中小學教師的固定工資只能勉強維持個人的生活，根本別說養小孩，養老人，養家了，忍無可忍，終於爆發。 6，作為知識分子的教師，看到其他行業的工人工資都年年上漲，政府口頭上雖說要重視教育，採取免費義務教育（作業本費還是要收），而教師待遇卻因為免費義務教育而受到了影響，也加深了矛盾。 7，政府實行新的村官制度，一個剛從大學畢業的大學生，如果能當上村官，則每月工資能達到1900元，而工作了10多20年的普通中小學教師大部分教師月收入才800－1200元不等，使得教師心裏極不平衡。。。。。。 對此，重慶市綦江縣教委得到情況後，馬上召開緊急會議，通知校長一邊威嚇教師，威嚇他們如果不上課，則要把名單報到縣教委，而另一邊又安撫人心，聲稱政府會考慮解決，但遲遲見不到具體的解決方案。同時，校長還通知教師去開會，找個別教師談話，做教師們的思想工作，而大部分教師則拒絕開會！大部分教師群情激動，都聲稱不達到教師工資「參照公務員執行」的目的決不罷休。 據消息靈通人事透露，此次罷課早已醞釀很久，並且，大有繼續向其他各個區縣蔓延下去的趨勢！看看最近的幾次罷課就知道了。 最近發生的教師罷課 9.23郫縣大規模教師罷課 10.6邛崍大規模教師罷課 10.9資中大規模教師罷課 10.13華鎣大規模教師罷課 10.8重慶銅梁縣部分教師罷課 10.20重慶永川縣教師全體罷課 10.22重慶長壽教師大規模罷課 10.23重慶市綦江縣教師大罷課