Asia marks Labour Day with lunch and confrontation
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao had lunch with steel workers on Monday to mark Labour Day as the country’s rapidly expanding economy faces a growing shortage or skilled staff.
Wen was shown on state television shaking hands with workers in blue jump-suits and red hard hats at Beijing’s Capital Iron and Steel Co.
He then carried a tray filled with vegetables, fried potatoes and steamed buns and sat at a table with workers at the company’s canteen.
“I’m very happy that I can celebrate the festival and have lunch with you guys,” Wen was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency. “Skilled workers are essential for the sustainable development of China’s enterprises.”
The country has been facing an increasing shortfall of workers as rural migrants begin to shun low pay and poor working conditions and manufacturers struggle to keep jobs filled.
A Labour Ministry report released in 2004 put the estimated shortage at 2.8 million.
Xinhua said Wen asked about the workers’ daily lives, housing conditions, income and what they did in their spare time.
“I hope all of you to master the highest technologies, make first-class products, have first-class achievements, and become first-class steel workers,” he said.
Elsewhere, workers rallied across Asia or better factory conditions and higher wages, often encountering a heavy police presence and, in some places, outright resistance.
In Sri Lanka, where violence between Tamil Tiger rebels and the military has heightened fears of a return to civil war, the government cancelled all May Day rallies.
About 100,000 workers took to the streets across Indonesia, protesting a labour law that would cut severance packages and introduce more flexible contracts that would chip away at worker security.
“Don’t change the law,” thousands of labourers chanted in downtown Jakarta, as others arrived in buses and trucks, waving green, yellow and red flags and banners.
Due to fears of violence about 13,000 police were deployed, some carrying riot shields or manning water cannons, said police chief Maj. Gen. Firman Ganisaid. No incidents were reported.
In the Philippines, soldiers and police with batons and shields turned away activists who tried to approach the presidential palace to demand a wage increase and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo’s ousting.
The government had banned protests near the Malacanang palace in Manila for security reasons, and amid rumours of a coup against Arroyo, who has been grappling with allegations of vote-rigging and corruption.
About 7,000 left-wing labourers and followers of ousted President Joseph Estrada marched toward the palace but were blocked by riot police, according to police and TV footage. The two sides started pushing each other at one point.
After brief negotiations, police allowed the protesters to hold a rally until before nightfall at the busy junction where they had been stopped. The protesters later left without incident.
In Cambodia, thousands of police brought the capital, Phnom Penh, to a virtual standstill during a government clampdown on an unauthorised May Day demonstration.
Opposition leader Sam Rainsy said police detained a protest organiser for two hours after hundreds of workers gathered on Russian Boulevard – a main road into the capital – seeking to march through the city.
The government had allowed only one official May Day demonstration at the Chenla theatre, and police armed with riot shields and batons physically prevented protesters from marching.
“Cambodia still lacks real democracy,” Sam Rainsy said. “There is no real respect for human rights.”
Thousands of garment factory workers rallied in Bangladesh to demand the US and Europe drop tariffs on their products, saying they could eventually cause the industry’s collapse. Others wound through the streets of the capital, Dhaka, banging drums and singing as they called for better working conditions in dangerous factories.
“No more death in factories,” they chanted.
South Korean protesters demanded equal status and protection for all workers, and vowed to thwart a government plan to negotiate a free trade agreement with the US. Critics say the pact will cost jobs.
