HONG KONG—A dispute over collective labor contracts at a Coca-Colabottling plant in the southern province of Guizhou has underlined fearsthat new legislation won't help Chinese workers unless thecountry's official union makes sure it has teeth.
The row at the factory belonging to the joint-venture Hunan-based COFCOCoca-Cola Beverages Co. blew up in April, according to Wu Likang, adistribution department employee at the Guizhou plant.
"The new Labor Contract Law took effect on January 1, 2008," she said."Our contracts expired on April 30. On April 3 at 6 p.m. they called usinto a meeting all of a sudden with no notice, and told us that theywere outsourcing our jobs and turning us over to a third party."
"We would no longer be Coca-Cola employees," she said.
Wu said about 10 people were notified directly that their contractswere being terminated, while others left of their own accord. More than20 distribution and warehousing employees had left the company.
"Now there are only four or five people still working in the distribution department. Everyone else has left," she added.
They called usinto a meeting all of a sudden with no notice, and told us that theywere outsourcing our jobs and turning us over to a third party."
Employee Wu Likang<br/>
Pay cut in half
She said the workers had once received a basic salary of 2,500 yuan(U.S. $365) a month, but that their incomes had been cut in half afterthe transfer to the labor contractors Rongcheng. The workers hadcomplained several times to Rongcheng.
Eventually, on July 16, the company issued an announcement titled"Regarding the decision to terminate labor contracts." The workforcehad been unemployed since then, Wu said.
An employee who answered the telephone at the Hunan Zhongliang CocaCola Soft Drinks Co. said they didn't know about the dispute.
Asked if they could transfer the call to someone responsible, theysaid: "Nobody is in the office right now. They are all very busybecause it's the National Day holiday soon."
But a human resources manager at Rongcheng confirmed there had been alabor dispute at the company. "I don't deny it," she said. "There was adispute between workers and management because of cuts to their salary."
COFCO Coca-Cola Beverages Co. is a joint venture company establishedbetween COFCO and the Coca-Cola Co., and is the only Coca-Colabottling group controlled by Chinese-funded enterprises.
Official arbitration
The workers have petitioned local authorities in the Guiyang municipalgovernment several times, Wu said. The case is currently awaitingarbitration from the labor department. Wu thinks it unlikely to comeout in favor of the workers, because of statements already made bylocal officials.
Activists have taken angry aim at the apparent unwillingness of local state-run union and labordepartment officials to play a crucial role in giving the newlegislation teeth.
But a recent, high-level campaign by the All-China Federation of TradeUnions (ACFTU) to sign collective labor contracts with global retailgiant Wal-Mart by the end of this month, and steps taken by unionofficials in the southern city of Shenzhen, show that things may bechanging.
The collective labor contracts cover remuneration, working hours, paid vacations, labor insurance, and welfare benefits, and stipulatethat workers should be paid more than the local minimum wage, accordingto a July 31 report in the official Workers' Daily newspaper.
According to the Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin, which has longslammed the ACFTU for its failure to enter into collective bargainingwith employers, are the changes in Shenzhen a "crucial turningpoint" in the history of China's trade union movement.
It quoted Guangzhou FTU chairman Chen Weiguang as saying in July that the union was a matter "for the workers themselves."
'Battle-ready' union
And it pointed to breakthrough wording in recent labor guidelinesissued by the union in Shenzhen, which call for a "responsible,empowered, and battle-ready union" that can protect workers’ rights,according to Zhang Youquan, head of the Shenzhen Federation’s legaldepartment.
Zhang told a new conference to announce the new regulations that thiswas the first time the term "collective bargaining" (jiti tanpan), asopposed to the previously used but much weaker concept of "collectiveconsultations" (jiti xieshang), had been applied in China's locallegislation.
China Labour Bulletin director Han Dongfang said China had long been at the point where something had to be done.
"Today in Shenzhen we can see the worst excesses of capitalism, butalso the desire of the people for social justice and–with these newregulations–the willingness of the government to move towardscapitalism with a human face," he said in a statement on the CLB Website.
Also significant in the Shenzhen regulations was the omission of anyreference to the union's role in facilitating a return to normalproduction in the event of a dispute, it said.
Original reporting in Mandarin by Xin Yu. Mandarin service director:Jennifer Chou. Translated and written for the Web in English byLuisetta Mudie. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.