Headlines of article concerning the Yue Yuen strike can a bit misleading. It will be closer to the truth to say “biggest strike in China in the last ten years”. In 2002 the Daqing oilfield workers’ big action against privatization involved hundreds of thousands of workers, some said it was more than 50,000, some said it was between 60,000 to 70,000.
Nevertheless this strike is big. And what is more the longer it drags on the dynamics behind it becomes more complicated.
Tomorrow there will be coordinated action in HK, Taiwan and US. Many groups are now involved. But there are also different tactics. Some which had not joined actions emphasis on appealing to ACFTU to intervene, although as a matter of fact there has always been workplace union in YY factories but this big strike once again shows how ineffective these workplace unions are.
While other emphasis on appealing to workers electing their own representatives to bargain with the management. But in general this also involves a lot of risk. One organiser of a local labor groups is allegedly missing after being invited to report to the local national security people.
Au Loong-Yu