Since early 2015, the repression on labour rights defenders in mainland China has been escalating from forced eviction of labour NGO offices to systematic use of violence against workers’ representatives. There were at least three cases of labour disputes in which police broke into the venues where workers were meeting. Police beat up and arbitrarily arrested staff of labour organisations and workers, and representatives who were detained compulsorily for 1 to 20 days under the charge of “sabotaging production and operation”. Undocumented cases of labour activists who were detained or criminalized are innumerable. According to the IHLO (the Hong Kong Liaison Office of the international trade union movement), there are still at least 7 labour activists in prison, including those who were sentenced to either life or long-term imprisonment due to their alleged involvement in labour organizing in 1989. Meanwhile, the draft Foreign NGOs Management Law and the National Security Law will be reviewed by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress in 2015, aiming to block mainland workers’ rights defenders from building connections to and receiving support from overseas.
Sample letter
I call on the Chinese government to:
1. Release all imprisoned labour activists and those arrested for defending labour rights.
2. Stop systematic violent assaults and repression of workers’ representatives who are fighting for their rights.
3. Become a signatory of ILO Conventions 87 and 98, which guarantee the right to organise trade unions and to collective bargaining,
4. Repeal the stringent measures imposed on mainland NGOs and safeguard citizens’ rights to free association.
To sign, go to:
http://www.labourstartcampaigns.net/show_campaign.cgi?c=2743