Resistance in workplace

1. Resistance in workplace The breakthrough of a women factory worker in China

2. Shang Ying Wanghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-c70YiyAHa0

3. Ten most Amazing women workers 2013–the prize of breakthrough • Resigned and reclaimed her own right and wage according to law • Aware of the occupation safety and health • Resisted to the oppressive act by the management • Taught the fellow worker about the legal protection • Participated in workers’ community Photo by: Ngai Lung Tai

4. Right reclamation as a form of resistance • Individual interest • Implication to the management: e.g. Sheng Ying’s fellow workers get the salary during resignation • Social implication: administrative litigation against the inact of local government department; Opinion/ regulation/ interpretation of superior level of court • Right reclamation and policy advocacy (raise of minimum wage, opinions to Labour Contract Law)

5. Flow of resistance • Inspection • Monitoring • Back pay • Penalty • Complaints • Personal actions • Registered of labour disputes • Mediations • Labour litigation • Administrative litigation • Sharing of experience • Solidarity support • Pressure accumulated by enormous number of case • Opinion/ regulation/ interpretation of superior level of court • Visiting the departments together • Petition letter • Media attentions

6. Worker V.S. workers’ community

7. Organizing Women workers • Challenge: • Gender expectation • Time spending in care work • Use of public space • Socialization • High turnover/ mobility • Organize in a different way: women worker group; literature group; cultural and leisure activities; Cantonese learning class; Sexual and reproductive health. • Minimum wage campaign: story and expenditure dairy • Capacity building and moderation

8. Women as focus 100 reasons: women workers are unhappy 2012 Photo by Baidu and ShouQuinShou Workers’ Centre • http://gd.qq.com/zt2012/unhappy100/index.htm

9. Put on Her Shoes: stop violence against women 2011 Photo by ShouQuinShou Workers’ Centre and Oxfam China

10. A research on sexual harassment in the factory By ShouQuinShou Workers’ Centre, 2013 • http://video.sina.com.cn/v/b/124548589-1789105180.html

11. The role of NGOs and workers’ service centre Worker editors for a workers’ newsletter (left: Workers’ voice) Photo by ShouQuinShou Workers’ Centre • Information and resource • Publication • Legal consultation • Human resource: organizers, volunteers and trainer (left) Volunteer Recuritment notice Photo by ShouQuinShou Workers’ Centre

12. The role of NGOs and workers’ service centre • Venue for exchange • Service centre • Outreach/ roadshow • Hospital visit Roadshow and promotion in the Shenzhen in- dustrial area to promote legal protection to workers Photo by Baidu and Dagongzhe Workers’ Centre ShouQuinShou Workers’ Centre Photo by Southern Metropolitan Daily, 2013 Leafleting in the railway station 2014 Photo by ShouQuinShou Workers’ Centre Hospital visit Photo by Baidu

13. The role of NGOs and workers’ service centre • Networking (national and international) • OSH • Legal right • Workers’ Cultural (up)Exchange seminar on the World Day for Safety and Health at work Photo by Baidu, 2012 (right) An exchange worksop attended by organizers and workers from different service centres Photo by Shenzhen Chunfeng Labor Disputes Services Center, 2012 (left) A performance in the Workers' Cultural Art Festival 2010

14. The role of NGOs and workers’ service centre Petition letter from over 100 workers in Shenzhen, demanding a raise in minimum wage standard. Photo by Southern Metropolitan Daily, 2007 • Catalyst for transformation • Campaign • Policy analysis and responses • Research 270 workers sent petition to Shenzhen people’s representatives, Government and trade union, demanding a raise in minimum wage standard , together with a research paper on the living expenditures of four different types Shenzhen workers’ family. Photo by Nang Fang Gong Bao, 2013 Campaign for an immediate release of detained worker who participated in a strike of furniture factory in Shenzhen. 2013 A research and case study on causes of working injuries By ShouQuinShou Workers’ Centre, 2013

15. Reference • Blair, J. (2010) On difference and capital: gender and the globalization of production, Signs 36 (1): 201-26. • Caraway, T. (2008) ‘The Political Economy of Feminization: From “Cheap Labour” to Gendered Discourses of Work’ Politics and Gender 1(3): 399-429. • Chung, Y. K. (1994) ‘Conflict and Compliance: The workplace politics of a disk-drive factory in Singapore’, in J. Belanger et al (eds) Workplace Industrial Relations and the Global Challenge, New York: ILR Press. • Elias, J. (2005) ‘The Gendered Political Economy of Control and Resistance on the Shop Floor of the Multinational Firm: A case-study from Malaysia’, New Political Economy, 10.2: 203-222. • Rock, M. (2001) ‘The Rise of the Bangladesh Independent Garment Workers’ Union (BIGU)’ in J. Hutchison and A. Brown (eds) Organising Labour in Globalising Asia, London: Routledge. • Salzinger, L. (2003) Genders in Production: Making Workers in Mexico’s Global Factories Berkeley: University of California Press. (section in Course Extracts)