Text of report by Hong Kong Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy on 8 June

[Unattributed report: "Some 2,000 Workers in Kunshan, a City Near Shanghai, Clash With Several Hundred Special Task Policemen; 50 Workers Were Injured"]

Our information centre learned that a serious bloody conflict as a result of workers' strike had occurred in the Huaqiao District, Jiangsu's Kunshan City, which is only 30 minutes' drive from Shanghai. About 2,000 workers of the Shuyuan [KOK] Machinery (Kunshan) Company Limited clashed with several hundred anti-riot policemen. Fifty workers were injured, five seriously, including a pregnant woman. The workers' strike is still going on today. A large number of antiriot policemen were on guard in Huaqiao this morning.

Subsequent to the workers' strikes in Fushikang and Honda factories, the workers of the aforesaid Taiwan-invested company in Kunshan proposed 13 requests to the factory authorities, including providing them with high-temperature allowances, paying insurance premiums for them, working extra hours voluntarily, giving housing allowances, providing statutory maternity leave, improving the canteen's mess, improving the salary increment mechanism, and workers' participation in the factory's management. After the workers' requests were declined, they began to strike yesterday. The authorities called in several hundred special task policemen to stop the workers' strike. After some policemen beat up a pregnant woman, the workers and the policemen got into a large-scale bloody clash in front of the factory gate. Several hundred policemen used police batons to beat up the workers to disperse them, but the workers resisted. Many workers said that more than 50 workers were injured and sent to a hospital. The workers' strike still continued today. It was estimated that more than 1,000 antiriot policemen cordoned off the Huaqiao area to prevent workers of other factories from joining the strike and swarming into the Shanghai World Expo. Huaqiao is some 30 km from Shanghai and is only 30 minutes' drive to Downtown Shanghai. Hotels in Huaqiao also accommodate Shanghai World Expo visitors.

Workers' strikes in foreign-invested factories in China will become contingencies that may break out in various localities anytime. Subsequent to the victory in Guangdong Honda Factory's strike, more than 10,000 workers of Merry Electronics Company Limited in Dalang, Shenzhen, launched a strike on 6 June. More than 2,000 workers of South Korean-invested factory in Huizhou - Yacheng Electronics Factory - waged a strike on 7 June. Currently the Chinese authorities are very worried that the workers will form connections in their strikes. Namely, when the workers of a factory launch a strike, other factories' workers will join, which could trigger larger strikes by several factories' workers.

In 1982, China's Constitution revoked the workers' right to strike, being the only constitution in the world that does not allow strikes. The constitution's deprivation of the workers' right to strike has received more and more criticisms. Now the call for amending the constitution is mounting.

Written on 8 June 2010

Source: Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, Hong Kong, in Chinese 8 Jun 10