World View
Global Dispatches From ABC News Reporters
ABC News staff around the world report on what makes the news and what doesn't.
RECENT POSTS
MONTHLY ARCHIVES
« Previous | Main | Next »
Unpaid Since 2007: Chinese Migrant Workers Protest
January 13, 2009 10:53 AM
By SHANNON VAN SANT
Ms Van Sant is a Beijing-based freelance journalist, not affiliated with ABC News.
This morning about 40 migrant workers filled my apartment lobby. I could tell from the way they were dressed that they were from the countryside. They seemed unhappy -- I assumed it was because of the weather. It's brutally cold. I also assumed they were here to do renovations or construction work. However I found their presence puzzling, because I had never seen any migrant workers in my building, and today there were dozens, and they remained all day.
It turned out they were demonstrating for past due wages and asking to see building management. The
real estate company that owns my apartment building owns several other properties in Beijing.
This evening five police vans surrounded my building. Only 10 or so migrant workers remained inside. My doormen told me that the rest of the workers had left and that the police had shown up to monitor the situation. The workers said they were from Gansu province and had worked for one year on a construction project in another part of Beijing. They said the managers of my building also manage this other property. They said they had not been paid since 2007 and are owed half their promised wages for the construction work. The workers wanted their money before they traveled home for the Chinese new year.
Though I'm familiar with increasing protests because of factory closures in southern China, could it be that the slumping real estate market is spurring discontent too, in cities like Beijing? Or is it that, with with more coverage of protests in the state-run media, and greater reluctance by officials to crack down, workers feel they have more of a voice?
After talking with them, I did what any host would do. I ordered them a pizza. As of 10:30 p.m. today, the workers are still in my lobby, and the police vans remain outside.
Read more blogs by ABC News Staff
January 13, 2009 in Guest | Permalink | User Comments (1)
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
Have heard several reports on NPR regarding the reverberating effect of the U.S. slowdown. By example, orders for recycled material (scrap metal, etc) are still being shipped overseas but are either not being picked up by the companies who ordered them orginally or are not being paid for after shipment. This then affects the factory workers involved in the processing, the shipments sit in the ship yards and so on.
Posted by: ck | Jan 15, 2009 4:28:54 PM
Post a comment
