City's heavy metal blues

IT used to be the nation's largest producer of gold and silver and one of the biggest employers in Northeast China, with a workforce of more than 20,000. But on Tuesday, August 8, a local court announced the bankruptcy of the Shenyang Smelter after 64 years of operation.

There was little sign of life last week at the plant, in the heart of Tiexi, the industrial district of Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning province, where so many state companies have closed that local people now call it 'the leisure district'. Security guards in green uniforms stand at the entrance as the few remaining workers come in and out. The plant's three giant chimneys are smokeless, the brick buildings are black, the pipes are rusting and grass is growing over the railway line that runs next door.

'The workers have seen this coming for several years,' said one official. 'So they have been psychologically prepared. They knew it had to close.' Yet for them the closure, even if expected, is a disaster. Some may find work in other metallurgy plants but the majority will join the ranks of the unemployed. Official figures put the out of work in Shenyang at 200,000, or about seven per cent of the city's workforce. Locals estimate it at between 800,000 and more than a million - or up to a third of the workforce.

The brief announcement of the bankruptcy on state television gave no details of the lay-off terms for workers. Local people said they would receive a one-off payment in line with their length of service, with 30-year veterans getting 15,000 yuan (about HK$14,000). After that, they would not be entitled to payments such as pensions or medical benefits from the company.

'I worked for 20 years in a metallurgy plant and received nothing at all when it closed,' said one taxi driver. 'The workers will have to find some way to survive, selling fruit or clothes, repairing shoes or washing cars. But we have so many people doing this already. Until a few months ago, we had protests all the time by retired people about non-payment of wages, pensions and medical benefits, and against corruption. Police did not want to arrest people with white hair. They used to block roads, which was very inconvenient for us drivers. The young did not take part for fear of being arrested and beaten up.'

Earlier this year the city government passed a regulation banning public protests and demonstrations and 'interference with government business'. A city government spokesman declined to comment on the reasons for the new regulation or its enforcement.