Jakarta Globe, John Boudreau, Apr 01, 2015
Thousands of workers at a Ho Chi Minh City factory stayed on strike for a sixth day on Wednesday over a government pension change as officials moved to quell the nation’s worst labor unrest since May’s anti-China riots.
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| Workers sew clothing with sewing machines at a garment factory at the Vietnam-Singapore Industrial Park in Thuan An, Binh Duong province, Vietnam. The new government pension rules will stop many workers from being eligible for lump-sum social insurance payments when they leave a company, delaying payouts until they retire. (Bloomberg Photo/Brent Lewin) |
Thousands of workers at a Ho Chi Minh City factory stayed on strike for a sixth day on Wednesday over a government pension change as officials moved to quell the nation’s worst labor unrest since May’s anti-China riots.
Several
thousand workers converged outside the factory owned by Taiwanese footwear
manufacturer Pou Chen, some blocking a highway that leads into the complex as
police tried to break up protesters. As many as 90,000 of the workers went on
strike last week, VnExpress reported.
It is
unclear which shoemakers the facility supplies to. Workers said they made
footwear for Nike and other companies, while Nike denied sourcing from the
factory affected.
The new
pension rules will stop many workers from being eligible for lump-sum social
insurance payments when they leave a company, delaying payouts until they
retire. Workers have said they are concerned the money may not be there in the
future.
Vietnam’s
Communist government restricts large, unsanctioned gatherings.
“None of us
has a house,” striking worker Nguyen Van Thu, 28, said outside the gates of the
shoe factory on Tuesday night. “When we can’t work, we want to get our social
insurance all at once so we can build a house for the family.
We struggle
to make a living. We have to pay for all kinds of insurance, and we’re afraid
we’ll lose it under the new law.”
Thu was one
of dozens of workers sitting outside the plant gate in a suburban district of
Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday, workers crowded the factory
complex, chanting and unfurling banners as police with batons stood by. The
company blared a recorded message beckoning workers to return to work.
At about
noon, hundreds of workers blocked an eight-lane highway near the factory as
police ordered them to disperse and redirected traffic away from the highway.
“The
workers want to raise their voices and speak out on this government policy,”
said Serena Liu, chairwoman of the Council of Taiwanese Chamber of Commerce in
Vietnam. “They feel this is the only way they can do it. It’s not about working
conditions.”
Pou Chen
called on the Vietnamese government to provide assurances to workers on the
social insurance issue, said company spokesman Amos Ho. The work stoppage,
which began on March 26, may cause some production delays, Ho said.
Pou Chen
manufactures shoes for Nike and Converse, according to its website. But Nike
and Converse do not source from the “contract factories currently affected by
the strike,” Nike said in a statement.
“There has
been no impact to Nike or Converse production at contract factories in
Vietnam,” according to the statement. “We are aware of the situation and will
continue to monitor.”
The
Vietnamese government pledged to prevent more labor unrest after workers
damaged foreign factories following China’s placement of an oil rig in
contested waters off Vietnam’s coast last year.
The labor
ministry is in talks with the shoe factory workers and has ordered government
agencies across the country to explain the purpose of the new policy, which
goes into effect in 2016, to head off further protests.
The strike
occurred after officials from Ho Chi Minh City’s social insurance office met
with factory workers to inform them about the new pension law, Doan Mau Diep,
the deputy labor minister, said on Wednesday.
The change
in the law is designed to encourage workers to save more money for retirement
by not allowing them to withdraw their pension contributions before they
retire, he said. Under the current law, workers are permitted to withdraw money
from their pensions with a penalty that reduces future government retirement payments,
Diep said.
Because of
the strike, the ministry is considering amending the law that goes into effect
next year to give workers the option of receiving their pension as a lump sum
when they leave a company or after they retire, he said.
“Given this
incident, we will have to carefully look into ways to improve our
communications to avoid something like this from happening again,” Diep said.
Most
strikes in Vietnam are focused on the practices of a company rather than the
government. More than 100 Vietnam Airlines pilots called in sick at the start
of 2015 amid discontentment over salaries.
Last May,
two people died during anti-Chinese protests at foreign factories. More than
1,000 workers at Levi Strauss’s factory in the northern province of Ninh Binh
engaged in a three-day strike in November 2013 to demand better working
conditions.
“This is a
very complex issue involving the poor living and working conditions of the
workers and the poor protections the government provides to them in terms of
social security,” said Alexander Vuving, a security analyst at the Asia-Pacific
Center for Security Studies in Hawaii.
“There is a
lack of trust. Institutionally, nobody represents the interests of the workers.
There are labor unions in Vietnam, but they are part of the Communist Party
system.”
Bloomberg
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