Read this very sad and upsetting news piece via The Peking Duck about how some corrupt Chinese business operators did not pay wages owed to some migrant workers. Such actions make me so upset. If the PRC cannot clamp down on such activities, I predict there will be a massive revolt against the system. If this occurs, I would not lose any sleep over it. Let the people 'hang the criminals' by their skrawny necks until they are dead - is what I say.
(The Straits Time Interactive - registered required)
Quoted passage from news article:
According to the workers, a foreman named Wei Xinghua had held back their pay month after month.'Soon most of us had to survive on one meal a day,' said another worker, Mr Xie Guozhu.
Mr Xie also said Mr Wei had promised to pay him 35 yuan a day. 'He now owes me 3,600 yuan and 200,000 yuan in all to the 20 over workers under him. But Xie is nowhere to be found since more than a month ago,' he added.
As sleeping pills are controlled drugs in China, the workers had bought their pills in batches. Last Saturday, they decided to take their last meal together before killing themselves.
The property developer which Fu Cheng, Mr Wei's company, was contracted to said it had long given the workers' money to Fu Cheng.
Following the suicide attempt, Fu Cheng paid every labourer hired for the project 100 yuan each and sent them home to wait for further news.
The seven workers are in stable condition now.
According to national surveys, more than 70 per cent of China's migrant workers are owed money by their employers who prey on them because there are few safeguards over workers' rights.
Also, unpaid wages in China have reportedly reached an astounding US$15 billion (S$25 billion), much of this in the construction sector.
Suicide threats are common among exploited migrant workers. Some of them perch on the rooftops of their quarters to try to force employers to pay up.
[comment: I sure hope the PRC finds the company foreman and gives him the severest punishment possible - that's right folks - "life in prison".]
International firms doing business in China need to ensure that labourers and/or factory workers are being paid properly. I will refuse to do any business with any company that does business with slave owners or evil businessmen.
World governments need to do more to ensure that evil business owners do not take advantage of workers. If the world governments are unwilling to do so, we can all pray to God that we hope He brings this world to an end quickly and start a new race of humans who might be more kinder to their fellow mankind.
By the way, with over 1.3 billion Chinese nationals, don't you think they could just march down the streets and kill all the evil business people and eventually make their way to Beijing? Now, that would be one event I would love to see and blog about.
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