MCLC: Teachers' strikes in northeast China

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Teachers’ strikes in northeast China
Source: NYT (12/1/14)
Teachers’ Strikes Spread Across Northeast China
By EDWARD WONG
BEIJING — Strikes by thousands of teachers frustrated by low salaries and mandatory payments to pension plans have spread across cities in northeast China, state news media reported on Monday.
The strikes began last week and have spread to a half-dozen cities or counties near Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang Province, where economic growth has long been slower than elsewhere in China. Classes in some primary and high schools in Heilongjiang have been suspended, the reports said.
Teachers are asking for raises and for the government to end required payments to a pension plan. China National Radio reported that one teacher was making less than $400 a month after working for 25 years.
A one-minute video posted online showed a group of banner-waving peoplein the snow in front of the county government offices in Yilan. “Give me back my salary, give me back my dignity,” the people shouted in unison. A report by Global Times, a state-run newspaper, said teachers in Yilan County held up a banner that said: “We are 4,000 Yilan teachers. Return my withheld money!”
In China, teaching has long been a profession with relatively low pay. Teachers from Yilan had posted a letter online that said educators who have worked for 20 years make just over $320 per month, and new teachers make $160 — “even more pathetic,” according to the letter.
The teachers acknowledged in their letter that the strike had caused hardships for students. “It hurts us that kids are affected because of this,” they wrote. “We’re profoundly sorry. Whatever we owe the kids, we’ll make up for in the future by being available all the time.”
There have been more reports in recent years of strikes in China by people in low-paid occupations. The labor pool of younger workers is getting smaller, and the growth rate of the Chinese economy has been slowing. Salary increases for lower- and middle-class workers have lagged behind inflation in many regions.
The grievances over the teachers’ pension plan have arisen because of a project started in 2004 by Heilongjiang Province, and supported by the central government, that requires government workers, including teachers, to contribute part of their salaries to a centralized provincial pension payment plan for all citizens. Previously, government workers were exempt from making payments.
Another letter posted online by teachers in the city of Shuangcheng, west of Harbin, said they should not be forced to contribute to the pension plan unless the policy is enacted nationally. Officials in Shuangcheng would not discuss the strike and several schools in the city said they were operating normally.
The protests around Heilongjiang began after teachers in the city of Zhaodong, in the same province, took to the streets in mid-November to demand higher salaries. The local government approved an average increase of $125 a month and promised to investigate working conditions, state news media reported. The teachers in Zhaodong then went back to work.
Strikes by teachers have taken place recently in other parts of China. Teachers at one junior high school in Guangdong Province protested in late October when the government began paying them about $260 a month after having promised a monthly salary of $800, according to the People’s Daily, the main Communist Party newspaper. A similar walkout occurred in March at a kindergarten in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong.
In early September, teachers at a high school in the city of Xiaogan, in Hubei Province, went on strike over what they called the government’s refusal to give them the proper status in the public employment system. The status helps determine details of their pension plans.
Patrick Zuo and Chen Jiehao contributed research.
by denton.2 at osu.edu on December 4, 2014
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