Posted on 08/02/2009 4:31:21 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Rumblings in China’s rust-belt
BEIJING, July 28 — The merger of two steel companies has been scrapped after a manager was beaten to death last Friday, said state media yesterday.
The incident is one of China’s most violent labour disputes in recent years and threw the spotlight back on the country’s rust-belt region, which had been a cauldron of agitation a decade back.
The riot took place in Jilin province, one of three north-eastern provinces known collectively as “Dongbei” in China, a region which has suffered the most from the country’s privatisation of state-owned enterprises since the 1990s.
Last Friday, privately-owned firm Jianlong Heavy Machinery was planning to take over the state-owned Tonghua Iron and Steel Group.
But according to the official China Daily, Jianlong manager Chen Guojun provoked the workers when he told them that the total number of employees would be slashed from 30,000 to 5,000 once the merger went through.
He was beaten to death by workers who also clashed with police and blocked medical workers from rescuing him. No one has been arrested yet.
According to the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, 30,000 workers took part in the protest and several hundred were injured. But China Daily put the figure at 3,000 workers and the state Xinhua news agency cited just 1,000.
While there have been only few instances of clashes resulting in deaths, the story of Tonghua is one which has been played out across north-eastern China for years, with workers taking to the streets when their jobs at state-owned enterprises were threatened.
(Excerpt) Read more at themalaysianinsider.com ...
Ping!
So, in China, the workers go into a murderous riot when they are told they will lose their jobs. In the USA, the welfare drones will riot when their benefits are cut. Big attitude difference!
read
I don’t see too much rioting among welfare recipients; rather, political organizations such as ACORN and unions such as SEIU riot in their names. Too many welfare recipients are unmotivated or befuddled with drugs to riot.
However, we are seeing a worldwide trend - too many unskilled workers and too few jobs for unskilled workers.
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