Hong Kong dockers have been involved in a month-long strike. The strike has brought sharply into focus the extreme poverty and widening income inequality facing a large proportion of the population in recent years. It is hard not to sympathise with the dock workers’ lot: 24-hour shifts in a crane with no lunch or toilet breaks, starting the day with a bucket to relieve themselves in one hand and a sandwich pack in the other. Visiting Australian union representatives likened the conditions to a “living hell.”
Dock workers in Hong Kong earn on average 18,000 Hong Kong dollars ($2,300) a month, which is about one-third the rate of their counterparts in Australia. They complain salaries have stood still since 2003, while prices of property and other goods have skyrocketed, and the workers are asking for a 20% pay increase.
The contract workers have little protection under local law. One contractor has already informed workers that due to the strike, it will close later this year, so they will lose their jobs. Behind the outsourced contractors, the ultimate boss is Hongkong International Terminals (HIT), which is owned by Li’s Hutchison Whampoa. One reason for conflict is the level of power Hutchison and a handful of other local companies that control key industries exert.
The dock workers’ plight resonates with an increasingly large swathes of the local population see themselves in the same boat — squeezed by ever-rising living costs and stagnant wages. The median wage for an adult male in 2011 stood at HK$13,000. That represents an increase of just HK$1,000 or 8.3% in the 10 years from 2001. And now, many find real wages are being eaten away by rising prices. Consumer prices grew 4.4% year-on-year in February, amid signs inflationary pressures are again building. Expect a lot more people asking for a 20% pay rise, just so they can afford to keep living in Hong Kong.
From here
Dock workers in Hong Kong earn on average 18,000 Hong Kong dollars ($2,300) a month, which is about one-third the rate of their counterparts in Australia. They complain salaries have stood still since 2003, while prices of property and other goods have skyrocketed, and the workers are asking for a 20% pay increase.
The contract workers have little protection under local law. One contractor has already informed workers that due to the strike, it will close later this year, so they will lose their jobs. Behind the outsourced contractors, the ultimate boss is Hongkong International Terminals (HIT), which is owned by Li’s Hutchison Whampoa. One reason for conflict is the level of power Hutchison and a handful of other local companies that control key industries exert.
The dock workers’ plight resonates with an increasingly large swathes of the local population see themselves in the same boat — squeezed by ever-rising living costs and stagnant wages. The median wage for an adult male in 2011 stood at HK$13,000. That represents an increase of just HK$1,000 or 8.3% in the 10 years from 2001. And now, many find real wages are being eaten away by rising prices. Consumer prices grew 4.4% year-on-year in February, amid signs inflationary pressures are again building. Expect a lot more people asking for a 20% pay rise, just so they can afford to keep living in Hong Kong.
From here
The 40 day strike by dockers at Port of Hong Kong ended Monday with a settlement that included a 9.8 percent wage increase, non-retaliation against strikers, and a written agreement, all of which had been fiercely resisted by the four contractors targeted in the strike. Strikers accepted the offer by a 90 percent vote.
ReplyDeleteSee interview with strike organiser at link
http://inthesetimes.org/uprising/entry/14964/40_day_strike_ends_in_victory_for_dockworkers/