Sanitation workers' strike in Guangzhou district to enter third day
Sanitation workers march on Guangzhou government offices, as dirty streets and piles of trash expose the cost of a row over low pay
A strike involving 300 sanitation workers in Guangzhou's Yuexiu district was expected to enter its third day today, with workers demanding unpaid wages and higher salaries.
The disgruntled workers gathered yesterday around People's Park, located across from the headquarters of the Guangzhou city government, during ongoing sessions of the city's People's Congress and its People's Political Consultative Conference.
The demonstration by frontline sanitation workers, in light of other recent rows involving labour disputes in Guangzhou and across the country, highlights a trend in which growing labour tensions no longer involve only migrant workers at factories.
It did not take long for the effects to be seen throughout Yuexiu district: rubbish bins were already overflowing yesterday and main roads remained unclean.
A 50-year-old sanitation worker from Sichuan province said she and her colleagues were not being paid enough by their employer - the contractor hired by the city to manage sanitation.
"We rose at 3am, and some [of us] even worked throughout the evening, to ensure that the streets were spotless - with not even a single cigarette butt - when Guangzhou was competing for a civilised-city title," she said. "But now that no one is inspecting the streets after the clean-up campaign, our employer has trimmed our annual leave and reduced overtime pay."