Demanding pay, Chinese miners protest over governor's claim

[Valin]

CNBC/AP:

Mar. 13 2016

 

Thousands of Chinese miners who say they have not been paid for months staged a rare protest in a northeastern city, days after the provincial governor made the apparently false claim that no miner working for the province's largest publicly owned mining company was owed any back wages.

 

Angry miners from Longmay Mining Holding Group Co. Ltd. and their family members marched through the city of Shuangyashan on Saturday and gathered in front of the company's local offices.

 

In response, the government of Heilongjiang province issued a statement Saturday night acknowledging that many Longmay employees are owed wages and benefits, backtracking from Governor Lu Hao's assertions earlier this month.

 

The protest and the change in the government's stance underline the sensitivity of the employment issue, as Chinese miners and others in state industries are losing their jobs or seeing their pay drastically cut. China's massive state-owned mining companies are struggling to boost efficiency and reduce their payrolls amid a severe slump in coal demand brought on by sharply slowing economic growth.

 

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[Valin]

China’s Rust Belt Up In Arms
Mar. 14 2016

Thousands of coal miners have taken to the streets in a Chinese northeastern rust belt mining town to protest falling wages and layoffs. Reuters:

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The unrest offers a window into the challenges facing President Xi Jinping. We have noted time and again how the real source of China’s decreases in carbon emissions is tied to both a concerted shift towards a more service-oriented economy, as well as a slower rate of growth that such a shift entails. Here we see on a micro scale the kinds of dislocations that this strategy entails. And with China reportedly expecting up to 6 million job cuts in the next few years, these protests could be a small sign of much bigger things to come.