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From CLW:

In Huangjiang Township, near Dongguan in Guangdong province China, over 7,000 workers walked off the job at the Yucheng factory, owned by a Taiwanese investment firm. They then surrounded the factory and blockaded the town’s main road in the largest protest against a Taiwanese company in 2011. During the protest, dozens of workers were injured in clashes with police and public security personnel.

The anger behind this protest had been building for some time. On October 27th, the factory suddenly dismissed 18 section managers, in a move seen by workers as a preparation for relocation. According to several media reports, the riot erupted due to new, widely-condemned regulations set by the factory management. The new rules axed all bonuses regardless of worker performances for as long as the factory was suffering losses. The new regulations, which led to the strike, also aroused fear among the workers that they might be dismissed someday.

This protest and strike illustrates the unfairness of the relationship between labor and capital in the Chinese economy and the lack of channels for Chinese workers to communicate their frustrations. It also shows how factory management is opaque, releasing decisions that have not been made with the consent or even foreknowledge of workers. While workers have become more conscious of their rights, managers still often cling to the same antiquated management model of using force to control their employees. This has only intensified the conflict between workers and management.

The specific grievances the workers have against Yucheng factory management are as follows:

1. The factory fired workers illegally.

2. The factory did not respect the workers, and managers would verbally abuse the workers.

3. The factory did not negotiate with workers before they made the decision about moving their plant and did not provide a reasonable plan for the workers to do so.

4. The factory did not negotiate with workers before set their new rules. The reward system is not transparent.

5. The labor union was not adequately protecting the workers’ rights.

China Labor Watch calls upon the Yucheng shoe factory workers and management to sit down and have a full and frank discussion about the situation at hand and for the factory management to issue a statement recognizing the workers’ demands as valid. However, in addition to Yucheng management assuming responsibility for the workers’ dissatisfaction, New Balance, the factory’s principal client, must also assume responsibility for the situation. They bear this responsibility because they have consistently driven down the price of their purchase order, dodging the issue of labor costs, therefore all but forcing Yucheng to keep worker compensation and spending on working environments low to meet New Balance’s price and quality requirements. The shortcomings at the Yucheng factory and the strike that resulted from them illustrate the failings of New Balance’s social responsibility policy, to the extent that workers must strike and protest to ask for the respectful treatment that they deserve. New Balance cannot completely avoid responsibility for what happens at this factory. China Labor Watch calls on the Yucheng shoe factory and New Balance to work together to address the workers’ demands.

From Financial Times:

Thousands of workers have returned to work at a shoe factory in the southern Chinese industrial city of Dongguan, amid allegations of police brutality to quell their protests on Thursday.

At least 2,000 workers protested outside the shoe factory on Thursday against the sacking of middle managers and the suspension of overtime, which effectively cuts their wages. The factory is owned by the Taiwanese company Pou Chen, which makes shoes for brands like Nike and Adidas.

Workers said the firings were related to a drop in orders at the factory and a decision by management to move jobs to another factory in the inland province of Jiangxi.

About 19 workers were detained by police and later released, according to internet reports. Several posted photographs online of beatings they had sustained in the protests.

A reporter covering the protests for Southern Daily, a Guangzhou newspaper, wrote in a blog about overhearing a conversation between a child and his injured father.

“Why didn’t you call the police after being beaten?’” the child asked.

The father told his child he was beaten by police, the reporter said.

Factories in southern China are struggling because of rising labour costs over the past year, and a collapse in orders from Europe since the third quarter as the EU debt crisis has dragged on.

Earlier this week, Zhu Xiaodan, Guangdong’s acting governor, said the province, which accounts for a quarter of China’s trade, had recorded a drop in exports of about 9 per cent in October because of a collapse in orders from Europe. He said that contrasted with the growth of imports and exports of 26 per cent in the first half of the year.

As labour costs have risen by double-digit rates this year, many companies have moved production from southern China to south-east Asia and China’s inland provinces.

Geoffrey Crothall of the China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based workers advocacy group, said he expected more labour unrest over the issue.

“It’s going to be tricky convincing workers [in Guangdong] to move inland,” said Mr Crothall, who said many young migrants preferred living in Guangdong’s bustling cities. “ It’s pot luck where the relocation happens. Will workers have to sign new contracts if they are moved inland?”

Pou Chen fired 18 middle level managers and workers in late October, one of the factors that prompted yesterday’s protest. One of the factory managers who lost his job wrote in a blog that the company had promoted him as recently as July.

“I have won awards every month. I love my factory and my family works here too,” he wrote in a post late last month.

Pou Chen did not respond to queries about the protests.

Additional reporting by Zhou Ping

From Caijing:

10月27日，裕成制鞋厂以订单减少为由突然解雇18名工作了十年以上的中层主管，18名主管认为厂方程序违法、补偿不到位，从而连续多日进行抗议。

11月8日上午，双方仍在协商。

对此，专家发出预警，每到年底时，劳动纠纷就会增多，尤其是在今年“老板跑路成风”的背景下，政府应做好打算提早应对。

六个回合磋商未出结果

其中一名被解雇的主管(张海)接受本报记者采访时称，直到11月7日，他们已经和厂方以及当地主管部门进行了六个回合的磋商，双方都提出了各自观点和理由，厂方答应11月7日下班前给出经济补偿的最终方案。

直到11月8日上午，厂方才给出答复，但并不令18位主管满意。

据了解，裕成鞋厂是新百伦的代工厂，隶属裕元工业(集团)有限公司，裕元集团是香港上市公司，为Nike、adidas等国际品牌代工，是台湾有“鞋大王”之称的宝成集团旗下企业。

本报记者在对张海的采访中发现，双方争议的焦点主要在于18名主管认为厂方解雇员工太过突然，10月27日下午4时厂方突然通知18名课长开会，会议上直接宣布解除其劳动合同，并要求18人当天下班前清点物品，次日到厂长室办理离职手续，30日12时之前搬离工厂宿舍。

张海认为，很多工作了十多年的老员工都和工厂签订了无固定期限劳动合作，这种突然辞退的方式属于违法行为。


张海说，经济赔偿是一方面，更重要的是，大家都是老员工，有些人自工厂建立那天就在工作了，有些人在工厂成家生了小孩，这种完全事前没有任何商量的辞退太令人伤心了。

而工厂给出的裁员理由也并不能让18名主管信服，工厂指出，因工厂订单大幅减少，业务严重萎缩，生产经营发生严重困难，此情形下，工厂决定裁员。

而被解雇主管之一王立(化名)对本报记者说，工厂为新百伦代工，比起那些小代工厂，订单量大，而且稳定，今年的订单量与去年相差不大，最有可能的原因是工厂早在3年前就在江西建立了厂房，目前的产能正逐步向江西转移，以应对珠三角高居不下的成本。

张海提供给本报记者11月2日裕成鞋厂发出的公告称：为应对市场需求与大环境的变化，工厂在运营策略上将作出调整，包括强化裕泰鞋厂(江西)在业务与产能方面的成长及扩充。为此，工厂将积极组训核心团队加入裕泰运作，欢迎现有裕成团队干部加入，成为第一批首选成员。

专家预警年底劳资纠纷将增多

对此，裕成鞋厂一位相关负责人却不认同，他接受本报记者采访时回应，根本就不存在订单转移的说法。“东莞裕成鞋厂和江西裕泰鞋厂虽隶属同一个集团，但却是两个独立的公司，生产新百伦不同型号的鞋子，设备和流程都不一样，不能互相转移订单。”

他说，裕成鞋厂原本是占用9个楼面进行生产，现在只剩5个楼面在生产，工人也减少到5000多人，这也是国际大环境的影响，欧美订单在缩减，代工厂也受到影响，订单减少是事实。

“下班前我们本来是要给出最终的经济补偿回复的，但由于这18名主管人未到齐，所以就等到11月8日早上给出结果。”该负责人对本报记者说。

对此，东莞市特约研究员、中山大学岭南学院财政税务系主任林江接受本报记者采访时称，无论是订单转移也好，减少也好，总之是企业对中高层员工的需求减少了。

“这也反映出一个问题。”林江说，现在珠三角的代工企业还是比较被动地回应国际大环境，没有长远的人力规划，有订单的时候招人，没有订单的时候裁员，这往往会造成想要招人的时候招不到，而裁员的时候由于处理不好而引发劳资纠纷。

林江分析，一方面也是因为这些工厂员工的工资本身不高，所以在赔偿的时候就“跟着感觉走”，如果是高薪聘请员工，那么在裁员的时候，企业可能要多加掂量了。“越到年关的时候越容易出现劳资纠纷。”林江说。

黄江镇外经办一位相关负责人对本报记者说，该办正在加紧研究出台有关加强企业风险预警等方面的方案，之前也有相关方案，但目前正在进一步完善中。

据了解，在东莞的东坑镇，目前已有人力资源局工作人员深入到企业，重点检查企业招用工情况，工资发放，是否存在违规加班，是否按要求执行最低工资标准等情况。

樟木头镇为了防范2008年的“合俊事件”再次发生，目前已经建立绿、黄、橙、红四级预警机制，实时监控企业的订单、工资发放、缴租情况，一旦企业被亮红灯，有关部门马上采取措施化解，必要时封存机器、货物，冻结银行资金。

From CLB:

Around 7,000 workers at a Taiwan-owned shoe factory in Dongguan took to the streets today, 17 November, in protest at salary cuts and the earlier dismissal of 18 managerial staff, according to posts on Tianya and a Southern Daily reporter’s microblog.

Photographs posted online showed large numbers of police on the street and bloodied workers who claimed to have been beaten by the police. Several other workers had reportedly been detained.

The strike at the Yue Cheng factory in Huang Jiang township was triggered by the dismissal of 18 managers in late October. The company claimed they had been dismissed because of the factory’s decreasing orders and sluggish business. But one of the managers told China Business News that the real reason behind their dismissal was that the factory planned to shift production to Jiangxi in a bid to combat rising costs in the Pearl River Delta.

“We’ve been loyal workers for over a decade in this factory. But now the factory decided to fire us on the sole excuse of bad business operations and cost pressures. How can they be so irresponsible?” one dismissed manager wrote on his internet post.

So far, the factory has not commented on the dispute. Yue Cheng is a subsidiary of Hong Kong-listed Yue Yuen Industrial Holdings, which makes sports shoes for New Balance, Nike and Adidas. Its Taiwan-based parent company, Pou Chen Corporation is one of the biggest shoe manufacturers in the world.

Early this month, another Taiwanese shoe maker in Dongguan, Stella, saw more than 2,000 of its workers strike in protest at its relocation plans and issues related to compensation.

From Focus Taiwan:

Taiwan-based Pou Chen Corp., one of the world's leading contract footwear makers, said Saturday a strike at a China production base of its subsidiary Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) Ltd. will have little impact on the parent company's operation.

Pou Chen, which rolls out products for international brands like New Balance and Nike through its broad facilities in China, said Yue Yuen is still negotiating with the union and workers at the Dongguan plant in Guangdong Province in an attempt to put the workers back on production lines as soon as possible.

Pou Chen said while the strike has caused an interruption in some of the production lines at the Dongguan site, the facility has inventory of about two weeks, so it is unlikely that the protest will seriously affect the company's operation and finances.

Once the management and employees reach a consensus to restore production, the company said, Yue Yuen will try its best to raise production and make up the shortage caused by the strike.

In addition to the Dongguan plant, Yue Yuen runs operations in other Chinese cities, such as Zhuhai and Zhongshan, as well as in Vietnam and Indonesia.

The strike broke out on Thursday in front of the Dongguan production site, with thousands of workers staging a protest against Yue Yuen's decision to fire several middle management staffers and a warning that employees' bonuses might be cut.

Local media had reported that the employees at the Dongguan plant, which is located in the Yue Yuen Industrial Park, were also unhappy about some harsh rules imposed by the company to restrict certain freedoms.

The reports said the proposed bonus reduction was a result of falling orders as global demand has been impacted by weakening economic fundamentals.

The strike resulted in some injuries to a number of workers after police stepped in to deal with a series of scuffles, while the traffic around the industrial park was paralyzed by the protest, the reports said.

According to Pou Chen, although Yue Yuen had tried hard to communicate with its workers on the changes in the company's policy, the employees failed to gain a better understanding and so took to the streets.

After the news of the strike surfaced Friday, Pou Chen shares plunged 2.77 percent to close at the day's low of NT$22.80 (US$0.75) on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. (By Maranda Hsu and Frances Huang) enditem/npw