Society

Labor pains: Stabbing highlights need to protect migrant workers

By Hu Yongqi and Peng Yining (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-01-20 07:37

Recent pay disputes

Sexual abuse threat

Wang Hongli, a sales manager for Hangzhou Feng'ge Clothing Co Ltd, Zhejiang province, was viciously stabbed when she demanded unpaid wages from her boss, Chinanews Online reported on Nov 11 last year.

Her boss and company owner Li Zhihong allegedly threatened her when she first asked for her delayed salary, and when she returned with her husband on Oct 31 the couple was attacked by a crowd of people. Wang said one man also threatened to sexually assault her if she continued to ask for the money.

She was forced to quit the company without receiving any pay. Police later detained Li and three other people, Chinanews Online reported.

Hostage situation

A migrant worker in Dongchuan district of Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, took a woman hostage last October to draw attention to a pay dispute with his boss.

Yang Lifeng was held captive in an ATM booth for eight hours by Wu Wenkui, 32, before police rescued her, said a statement released by the Kunming Public Security Bureau.

After being detained, Wu claimed the siege was in response to his supervisor - a man surnamed Liu - refusing to pay him 3,000 yuan ($440) in unpaid wages.

Online reward

Chen Jianhua turned to the Internet to find a solution to his pay dispute with a company in Suining, Sichuan province - by offering a 3,000-yuan reward to anyone with advice, West China City Daily reported.

Chen, a construction site foreman from Chongqing, appealed to netizens through forums on tianya.cn and sichuannewsnet.cn in November last year for tips on how to get his money.

He and his colleagues did not want to resort to violence, he wrote in one post, adding: "We have wives and kids. We can't simply jump off a building or something because our families need us."

Winter of discontent

After finishing work on a high-tension cable project, about 500 migrant laborers were stranded in Chongqing last December when the foreman vanished with their wages, around 5 million yuan, Chongqing Evening News reported.

The men have refused to return home without their cash and are living in freezing empty rooms, eating only plain steamed rice and instant noodles for weeks, the paper reported.

"I don't even know how to tell my family the truth," a worker surnamed Chen was quoted as saying.

China Daily