DONGGUAN: Protest by suitcase workers sent packing
DONGGUAN, China Laid-off migrant worker Chen Li had red scrape marks on his right cheek from a scuffle with riot police outside his factory that went bust this week in southern China.
EU Internet: speeds up, prices downNow the angry young man is going home early to his village in northern Hubei province for the annual Chinese New Year holiday, where he says he will be bored and idle for a couple of months. It's restless migrants like Chen who are among the biggest worries for Chinese leaders trying to maintain social order during a souring economy.
"I've grown used to living in the city now," said Chen, 25, looking urbane Friday in a new but slightly dusty blue suit. "I just can't stand the country life anymore."
During boom years, workers like Chen would still be toiling on the assembly line, looking forward to banking another month or so of pay before the Chinese New Year, which begins Jan. 26. But this year thousands of factories have gone belly up in Guangdong province the country's main manufacturing hub forcing the migrants to head home early.
With the global economic downturn, Christmas export orders were down for Chinese factories, and more bad economic news has followed. In November, growth in China's factory output fell to its lowest level in nearly seven years. More than 7,000 companies in Guangdong closed down or moved elsewhere in the first nine months of the year, the official China Daily newspaper reported.
For workers like Chen, the chances of finding another job are low. This is the slow season, with Christmas orders already shipped off. A new hiring frenzy normally kicks off after the New Year holiday, when migrants flood back to industrial zones in one of the world's biggest annual human migrations.
Until then, authorities will be under pressure to keep a lid on discontent in villages, where many workers may still be simmering over how their jobs came to a bad end.
It has become common in Guangdong for factory owners to suddenly shut down their cash-strapped plants and disappear without paying laborers.
That's what happened at Chen's factory the Jianrong Suitcase Factory in the city of Dongguan. The plant shut down Tuesday without warning and its 300 workers began taking to the streets, demanding full payment of wages.
Local government officials eventually glued an announcement to the factory's walls, saying its Japanese owner could not be located and the workers would only get 60 percent of the monthly wages they had earned since October. The laborers, paid an average monthly salary of 1,500 yuan, or about $220, refused to accept the deal.
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