3 decades on, China´s migrants still outside looking in

FIGHTING FOR RIGHTS

Compared with Wang, 42-year-old Li Xingyuan is just as firm but takes another approach. The senior carpenter from the northwestern Shaanxi Province plans to take his former employer, Li Feng Furniture Co. Ltd., to court.

The company, which is located in the same village near Beijing as the migrants' museum, fired Li in September. He rushed to a railway station in the capital one morning to stop his teenage daughter from being abducted onto a train. He went without the permission of his boss.

"I know I should've asked for permission beforehand ... but it was such an emergency. It was 5 a.m. and no one answered the phone," Li said.

Li asked his wife, who worked at the same factory, to explain to the boss. But when he brought his daughter home and went back to work a few hours late, he was told to pay a 1,000-yuan fine or leave. The couple quit but their boss held two months of their wages -- about 4,000 yuan.

"At first I tried to reason with the managers. At least twice I narrowly avoided being beaten up by the boss and his men," said Li.

Many of Li's co-workers had similar experiences. "Most of them avoided trouble, either by paying a fine or leaving without getting paid."

Li, who lives near Xu's museum and studies law at night school, wants to make a difference. He has filed a complaint at the district's labor bureau. "That's the standard procedure to settle labor disputes -- courts hear only cases that are unsettled at labor bureaus," he said.

Firm as he is about seeking justice, Li is uncertain if or when his boss will cough up his back pay. "The labor bureau will not hear my case until mid-January. By then, I'll have gone home for the Chinese New Year."

That holiday, the most important on the Chinese calendar, falls on Jan. 25. Many migrants are already planning trips home because the traditional holiday comes about two weeks earlier than usual and the businesses where many work are being hit by the global financial tsunami.

But many, like Li Xingyuan, need to get their back wages before leaving.

"Migrants' claims for wages have always been a touchy issue," said Xu.

"Often, they spend lots of time and money getting what they have earned -- and the average cost is three times the amount owed to them, according to a 2004 study on migrants' rights."

China launched a nationwide campaign in 2003 to ensure migrants get paid on time and in full, after Premier Wen Jiabao helped a peasant woman claim her husband's back wages. In 2005, the first trade union for migrants was established in the northeastern Liaoning Province.

Today, Xu and his friends are trying to help migrants the way a trade union would: providing free counseling, working to expose wrongdoing in the media, and training migrants and their children.

Xu said he's relieved to see more migrants have learned to safeguard their rights using the law instead of violence or suicide attempts.

"I hope this year will not end with tragedies like these," Xu said as he pointed to a group of photos showing migrants jumping off high towers and buildings after failing to get their wages. "I hope all migrant laborers will be respected by their employers."

Dang Guoying, a research fellow with the Rural Development Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said he was glad to see the increasing awareness of migrant workers.

"A club run by migrants themselves can play an active role in handling their problems," he said, adding that there are too many people for the workers' unions and the club is a good supplement.

Dang said local governments should cooperate with such organizations, encouraging their growth while maintaining social stability.

Fortunately, in Picun, that suggestion seems to have been followed, as the village government is funding the club and considering ways to find a better site for the museum.

"Respecting the value of labor is our nation's fundamental principle," reads a poster on the wall of the museum, quoting Premier Wen Jiabao.

( By Xinhua writers Zhou Yan, Bai Xu )

Editor:Zhang Ning