Description

From CLNT:

A fierce “wave of cashing-in pensions” swells on the eve of new social security legislation Southern Metropolitan Weekly
15 January 2010 1

The day before new social security legislation was enacted, waves of migrant workers “cashing-in pensions” swelled in Pearl River Delta cities with high concentrations of migrant workers, including Foshan, Dongguan, and Shenzhen. The new legislation was passed in order to allow migrant workers to smoothly transfer their old-age pensions between provinces. But as far as workers who have been lost the option of cashing it in are concerned, transferring their social security account up to their hometowns is a big problem. And more importantly, having money in their hands is still the most tangible option.

Wang Qing, shut inside his eight square-meter room, has not ventured out for
three days.

What continues to puzzle Wang Qing is, when he and his co-workers clashed with
police, a high-ranking boss from the factory suddenly shouted “serves them right!”. This was the factory they had worked hard for over the past year.
In this block of more than 100 apartments, with room for more than 100 tenants, live
more than 20 employees of the Meitai company. One of them, is 25 year old Wang Qing from Guangxi. “I don’t want my pension money. I’m getting ready to resign and go home to Guangxi. Perhaps I’ll go back, start some small business and not come back to Guangdong!” Wang Qing with his dishevelled hair gazes blankly at the ceiling. “Employees get beaten, and the leaders say it’s good. You tell me, what’s the point in staying at this kind of factory?” Meanwhile there are another few workers who want to resign. Wang Qing says, “this time, we are really heart-broken.”

The Meitai company is located in Guanyao, in the Shishan township, Nanhai district,
Foshan city. It is famous for manufacturing fashionable Barbie dolls. Three days earlier, an incident occurred where more than 1,000 workers “collectively cashed-in their
pensions”. Work was stopped for four days at this factory that had only just recovered from the financial crisis.