The report below is the text of an article taken from the International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers Associations (IUF)
8 May 2003
The incidence of fatalities due to the SARS virus pales next to the millions of annual deaths due to tuberculosis, malaria or HIV/AIDS. But that is small consolation to the hundreds of victims - or the hundreds of thousands of tourism workers out of a job or on reduced hours as a result of this latest blow to global tourism
While we struggle to negotiate solutions to the crisis in an industry where negotiation remains the exception rather than the rule, we should also draw the broader lessons of the crisis.
SARS first appeared in China in November, but it was only in April that the Chinese authorities came clean on the extent of the epidemic and began the necessary public health measures to contain the spread of the virus. At that point, however, the SARS virus had spread to dozens of countries, and the international panic was on.
Addicted to secrecy, censorship and manipulation, China's new/old rulers were anxious to contain news of the medical crisis to prevent damage to the country's image and, it would appear, ensure an uninterrupted flow of visitors and investors to the Canton Export Fair. The results were deadly. The true number of cases in China may never be known, but tens of thousands of Chinese are currently under quarantine, and the number is growing daily. Censorship - the inevitable prop of all single-party rule - has again proven fatal, as it always does.
The SARS crisis therefore has to be seen in its wider context. Over 1,300 workers have died in Chinese mines already this year - more than 4 times the number of recorded SARS victims. Most of these deaths would not have happened if there were elementary health and safety measures in place - and elected union committees to oversee their implementation.
On April 5, before the full extent of the SARS crisis was made public in China, a fire at the Qingdao Zhengda food processing factory near Qingdao City in Shandong province killed 21 workers. According to survivors' testimony, when workers first sought to escape from the burning factory the manager ordered employees to stay at their posts until the stock had been moved to safety. Only those who ignored the order were saved. Nor was this the first fire at the plant. Workers attempting to flee previous fires had reportedly had their wages docked and were fined.
The factory, which employed thousands, of course had no union, and there is no indication that conditions would have been different had the official All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) been present at the plant to collect dues. ACFTU officials interviewed by China Labour Bulletin after the fatal fire showed no knowledge of the plant, a flagship enterprise employing 4,000 workers belonging to the Thai transnational Chia Tai Group.
The Chia Tai Group, on the other hand, is well known to China's political elite. The Group operates factories and retail stores throughout the country, and enjoys privileged access to the highest levels of political leadership. In 1990, the company CEO met with Deng Xiaoping, whose remarks during the interview on the "correctness and necessity" of the military suppression of the 1989 democracy movement can be found in the third volume of Deng's Collected Works.
Just as Chinese officials were pressured into protecting the trade fair rather than public health, health and safety inspectors are obliged to furnish whitewashed reports to protect local officials and foreign investors. The results in both cases are fatal.
Chinese workers fighting for independent trade unions will find little humor in the irony of foreign trade unionists cancelling their visits to meet with ACFTU officials as a result of the SARS scare. Or of the very same governments who saw no human rights violations in China at this year's session of the UN Commission on Human Rights now attacking China's health ministry for its lack of transparency.
Dictatorship kills, not only by placing public officials above and beyond democratic control and accountability, but by depriving workers of the organizations necessary for defending their rights - and their lives - at the workplace. A strong and vibrant trade union movement is an essential guarantor of democracy, and it is for this we must be fighting for, in China as everywhere.
8 May 2003
The incidence of fatalities due to the SARS virus pales next to the millions of annual deaths due to tuberculosis, malaria or HIV/AIDS. But that is small consolation to the hundreds of victims - or the hundreds of thousands of tourism workers out of a job or on reduced hours as a result of this latest blow to global tourism
While we struggle to negotiate solutions to the crisis in an industry where negotiation remains the exception rather than the rule, we should also draw the broader lessons of the crisis.
SARS first appeared in China in November, but it was only in April that the Chinese authorities came clean on the extent of the epidemic and began the necessary public health measures to contain the spread of the virus. At that point, however, the SARS virus had spread to dozens of countries, and the international panic was on.
Addicted to secrecy, censorship and manipulation, China's new/old rulers were anxious to contain news of the medical crisis to prevent damage to the country's image and, it would appear, ensure an uninterrupted flow of visitors and investors to the Canton Export Fair. The results were deadly. The true number of cases in China may never be known, but tens of thousands of Chinese are currently under quarantine, and the number is growing daily. Censorship - the inevitable prop of all single-party rule - has again proven fatal, as it always does.
The SARS crisis therefore has to be seen in its wider context. Over 1,300 workers have died in Chinese mines already this year - more than 4 times the number of recorded SARS victims. Most of these deaths would not have happened if there were elementary health and safety measures in place - and elected union committees to oversee their implementation.
On April 5, before the full extent of the SARS crisis was made public in China, a fire at the Qingdao Zhengda food processing factory near Qingdao City in Shandong province killed 21 workers. According to survivors' testimony, when workers first sought to escape from the burning factory the manager ordered employees to stay at their posts until the stock had been moved to safety. Only those who ignored the order were saved. Nor was this the first fire at the plant. Workers attempting to flee previous fires had reportedly had their wages docked and were fined.
The factory, which employed thousands, of course had no union, and there is no indication that conditions would have been different had the official All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) been present at the plant to collect dues. ACFTU officials interviewed by China Labour Bulletin after the fatal fire showed no knowledge of the plant, a flagship enterprise employing 4,000 workers belonging to the Thai transnational Chia Tai Group.
The Chia Tai Group, on the other hand, is well known to China's political elite. The Group operates factories and retail stores throughout the country, and enjoys privileged access to the highest levels of political leadership. In 1990, the company CEO met with Deng Xiaoping, whose remarks during the interview on the "correctness and necessity" of the military suppression of the 1989 democracy movement can be found in the third volume of Deng's Collected Works.
Just as Chinese officials were pressured into protecting the trade fair rather than public health, health and safety inspectors are obliged to furnish whitewashed reports to protect local officials and foreign investors. The results in both cases are fatal.
Chinese workers fighting for independent trade unions will find little humor in the irony of foreign trade unionists cancelling their visits to meet with ACFTU officials as a result of the SARS scare. Or of the very same governments who saw no human rights violations in China at this year's session of the UN Commission on Human Rights now attacking China's health ministry for its lack of transparency.
Dictatorship kills, not only by placing public officials above and beyond democratic control and accountability, but by depriving workers of the organizations necessary for defending their rights - and their lives - at the workplace. A strong and vibrant trade union movement is an essential guarantor of democracy, and it is for this we must be fighting for, in China as everywhere.