The strikes that have beset major Chinese manufacturers in recent weeks follow years of growing industrial action. Official arbitration panels in the country dealt with 875,000 cases last year, an increase of 75 per cent from the 2007 figure of 500,000, according to information from China's ministry of human resources and social security. Similarly, the number of collective disputes has gone up, from 13,000 in 2007 to 14,000 last year.
"What we are seeing is an increase in the number of disputes, certainly in the last 10 years," says Geoffrey Crothall of the China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based workers rights organisation. He expects more protests "at any factory at which workers are low paid". The workers have been allowed to vent their anger amid what appears to be a more liberal attitude by the authorities when it comes to disputes, particularly at foreign-owned companies, although Mr Crothall says attitudes vary across the country.
"Each local government responds differently," he says. "Some are quite lenient, some will take a hard line, but the main concern of local government is to stop the strike and get the workers back to work and they will do that by putting pressure on the workers and pressure on the management." Chinese media reports have said local authorities often take the side of management, even if labour laws appear to have been breached.
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