Hundreds of Chinese workers demanding overtime pay went on strike at one of the world's busiest ports, holding up thousands of shipping containers at the terminal in southern China, Hong Kong newspapers reported yesterday.
Crane operators and truck drivers at the Chiwan Container Terminal in the boomtown of Shenzhen stopped working at midnight on Tuesday, pro-Beijing newspaper Wen Wei Po in Hong Kong reported.
A man who answered the phone at the port's offices said services had partially resumed on Tuesday, but he refused to give more details.
Calls to the company's headquarters and the local government went unanswered because of the weeklong labor holiday in China.
More than 400 dock workers were unhappy about wages and have accused management of failing to pay them overtime as required by law, Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported.
They staged a sit-in outside the container terminal's headquarters on Tuesday, the paper said. Police were called in to maintain order, but no violence was reported.
The Post quoted an unnamed worker who said they took industrial action on International Labor Day to express their anger.
"Many of us have sacrificed our health and spare time to work for the company. We only have one or two days of rest each month. The company should treat us better," the man was quoted as saying.
Dockers earn about 4,000 yuan (US$519) on average per month, the paper reported. The wage is considered high as government statistics showed the national average monthly urban wage last year was 980 yuan (US$127).
Chiwan Container Terminal is one of the world's busiest according to its Web site.
Chiwan Container Terminal is a joint venture among Chiwan Wharf Holdings Ltd, Hong Kong's Kerry Holdings Ltd and Hidoney Development Ltd.
HOLLYWOOD IN TURMOIL: Mandy Moore, Paris Hilton and Cary Elwes lost properties to the flames, while awards events planned for this week have been delayed Fires burning in and around Los Angeles have claimed the homes of numerous celebrities, including Billy Crystal, Mandy Moore and Paris Hilton, and led to sweeping disruptions of entertainment events, while at least five people have died. Three awards ceremonies planned for this weekend have been postponed. Next week’s Oscar nominations have been delayed, while tens of thousands of city residents had been displaced and were awaiting word on whether their homes survived the flames — some of them the city’s most famous denizens. More than 1,900 structures had been destroyed and the number was expected to increase. More than 130,000 people
THE ‘MONSTER’: The Philippines on Saturday sent a vessel to confront a 12,000-tonne Chinese ship that had entered its exclusive economic zone The Philippines yesterday said it deployed a coast guard ship to challenge Chinese patrol boats attempting to “alter the existing status quo” of the disputed South China Sea. Philippine Coast Guard spokesman Commodore Jay Tarriela said Chinese patrol ships had this year come as close as 60 nautical miles (111km) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon. “Their goal is to normalize such deployments, and if these actions go unnoticed and unchallenged, it will enable them to alter the existing status quo,” he said in a statement. He later told reporters that Manila had deployed a coast guard ship to the area
A group of Uyghur men who were detained in Thailand more than one decade ago said that the Thai government is preparing to deport them to China, alarming activists and family members who say the men are at risk of abuse and torture if they are sent back. Forty-three Uyghur men held in Bangkok made a public appeal to halt what they called an imminent threat of deportation. “We could be imprisoned and we might even lose our lives,” the letter said. “We urgently appeal to all international organizations and countries concerned with human rights to intervene immediately to save us from
Some things might go without saying, but just in case... Belgium’s food agency issued a public health warning as the festive season wrapped up on Tuesday: Do not eat your Christmas tree. The unusual message came after the city of Ghent, an environmentalist stronghold in the country’s East Flanders region, raised eyebrows by posting tips for recycling the conifers on the dinner table. Pointing with enthusiasm to examples from Scandinavia, the town Web site suggested needles could be stripped, blanched and dried — for use in making flavored butter, for instance. Asked what they thought of the idea, the reply
RSS