At a criminal appeal court hearing on December 31, 2004, seven Chinese shoe
factory workers walked free in the southern city of Dongguan,
Guangdong Province, after their original sentences of up
to three-and-a-half years' imprisonment were reduced to
nine months, suspended for one year. Three under-aged workers
were also released and their original suspended prison sentences
dropped. They had all been in jail since April 2004.
This reversal of the sentencing of the Stella International
shoe factory workers - all of whom had been involved in
mass protests against bad working conditions at Stella's
Xing Xiong and Xing Ang factories in late April 2004 - represents
a significant landmark in the history of the modern labour
movement in China.
In a statement issued on 10 January 2005, Hong Kong-based
China Labour Bulletin (CLB) said, "The Stella case
demonstrates that principled and well-written defence arguments
by mainland Chinese lawyers, coupled with a bold and well-coordinated
campaign by concerned labour groups and the international
labour movement, can make a real difference to the fate
of detained Chinese worker activists, even in a case involving
major criminal charges."
The defendants had been charged with "intentional
destruction of property" in connection with two mass
protests involving thousands of workers at the Xing Xiong
and Xing Ang factories owned by the Taiwanese company Stella
International on 21 and 23 April 2004 respectively. Excessive
working hours, low pay, having withheld or seriously underpaid
their wages for a several-month period, and the poor quality
of food provided at the factories' canteens were the triggers
for the protests.
For example, during the trial on 25 August, it emerged
that some workers at the factory had been "working
like brute animals" all month long but had received
a salary of only around 450 Yuan, a large proportion of
which went to pay for their accommodation and food at the
factory. Moreover, for the two months of March and April,
Stella International had apparently paid many of the workers
only 50 Yuan per month in wages. None of the factory's workers
had had the slightest idea as to why they were suddenly
being paid only a fraction of their normal monthly wages.
The strikes were reported by the mainland media, and CLB
be-lieves that the court's decision was in part a reaction
to the media, in particular a long analysis published by
the China News Weekly (Zhongguo Xinwen Zhoukan) on October
25, 2004. In a rare move, the semi-official magazine high-lighted
Lawyer Gao's argument in his defence statement for Chen
Nanliu - one of the Xing Ang workers - that the prosecuting
authorities had failed to prove that the workers' actions
were in any way planned or or-ganised. It also quoted a
labour expert in Guangdong as saying that "workers
should be allowed to organise themselves and to have a legal
channel to express their grievances".
As for international support, on October 29 - less than
a week after the sentencing of the Xing Ang workers - the
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)
sent a letter to President Hu Jintao protesting against
the sentences. They also quickly issued a press release.
After being alerted to the case in early October, the CCC
contacted CLB and, based upon their advice, in the third
week of October contacted the following Stella clients:
Nike, Timberland, Sears, Jones Apparel, Clark Shoes, New
Balance, Kenneth Cole and Marc Jacobs. Reebok, another Stella
client, had already become active in the case. The CCC asked
the brands to contact the au-thorities and Stella management
to request leniency in the sentencing and secure improvements
so that conditions would be fair, and workers have appropriate
avenues to communicate grievances. Reebok CEO Paul Fireman
himself wrote to the Dongguan Court requesting leniency
for the "Stella Ten". We understand that Clark's
shoe company did likewise.
At a court hearing on August 25, 2004, Lawyer Gao made
a powerful defence speech highlighting the underlying causes
of the exploitative working conditions that led to the Stella
factory workers' protest - China's neglect of workers' rights
in its unqualified support for foreign investment.
Although this case is a milestone on the journey towards
work-ers' rights in China, we should not forget that the
appeal court still maintains that the ten Stella workers
are guilty of their al-leged offences. As CLB says, "Instead
of scapegoating individual workers in this way, the Chinese
authorities should address the real issue of why labour
unrest has become so widespread. Workers need to be able
to establish their own independent trade unions, so that
they can voice their grievances peacefully and negotiate
with their employers on working conditions, wages, health
and safety, and other issues of vital concern to workers
around the country."
For more information on this case, including a translation
of Lawyer Gao's defence statement please see the China Labour
Bulletin website at www.china-labour.org.hk.
