After their first strike three years ago had only brought short-term results,
Thyssen-workers in Hong Kong decided to go on strike again against the unbearable exploitation.
In the morning of the strike Thyssen representatives refused to negotiate with the workers.
During lunch, we talked to two workers...
TV-news-report: A group of workers were discontent about the treatment of the company
and decided to go on strike.
They stated that they would only provide emergency service.
Thyssen did not respond to this moment.
The HK Electrical and Mechanical Services Department expressed its concern over the issue.
This morning, some workers protested outside the Thyssen headquarters.
They complained about the long working hours, as they always need to work for 33 hours at a time.
Local resident: Of course I am worried. I live at the top of the building, on the 21st floor.
I am not young anymore, and how could I walk up the stairs?
Two thirds of our colleagues came out today,
and the remaining one third was responsible for the emergency services.
We did not want to cause inconvenience for the passengers.
If the company refuses to solve the problem as soon as possible,
we will take our action to a higher level.
The night shift might not start working today.
It all depends on the attitude of the company.
ThyssenKrupp is one of the 500 biggest companies in the world.
It is a giant transnational company.
Today, we are asking for an increase of the basic wage.
We absolutely do not believe,
that such a big company cannot afford this, right?
Yes!
A company spokesman said, the highest decision maker of ThyssenKrupp (Hong Kong)
is not in Hong Kong at the moment. Only the Repair and the HR managers will attend the meeting.
The head of the company is not here, but the manager of the HR department.
Are you worried? The meeting this morning has been delayed for three hours.
What if the delay will last for many days?
We are not really worried,
as there must be more than one person in charge in such a big company.
Other responsible staff can also negotiate with us.
I have only one child.
The burden of a child depends on its age. How old is he?
He is in Secondary 2 [13 years old].
Still a long time ahead [until his child can go out to work].
How much is your basic salary? (Another interviewer: 11,000 HK-Dollars.)
11,000 a month is not very much for a family with a kid.
I depends on the overtime work I can do to support my family.
How many hours do you work every week?
More than 100 hours weekly. -- More than 100?
[The workers' first demand: Staff should not work continuously for more than 24 hours.]
That is terrible. It is even longer than doing two normal full-time jobs.
100 hours per week, that is more than 15 hours a day.
Yes.
If you have just 9 hours for sleeping, eating and communting,
you have hardly any time to be with your family...
Even when you are back at home, you need all the time to sleep...
Yes.
Your life has been sold to the company.
How is your work schedule?
Normally I work from 8:30am to 5:30pm.
A night shift lasts from 5:30pm to next morning 8:30am.
Except for Sunday, we continue to work during the day.
People in this sector have been depending on overtime and shift work to increase their salary.
How long do you work overtime? What has been the longest shift?
The longest?
The maximum shift is two days continuous work.
A day and a night and another day and another night.
And maybe another day before you get off.
That is more than 48 hours.
Yes. It only happened recently as a lot of the workers have left.
In the past this rarely happened.
At most you had a night shift every other day.
It changed because many of us resigned for a higher paid job elsewhere.
The low salary lead to the loss of staff, and this increased the remaining workers' workload.
More than 20 of us left in the past two months. They moved on to better jobs.
That's many.
Yes. Already before they resigned there was not enough staff,
but now it got more serious.
Did the company discuss with the union (how to solve it)?
No, the company only said that there was still more than enough staff.
They calculated the staff according to how many elevators each worker has to look after.
But they did not allocate the work well.
Some workers have to look after 18, some after 30. It is very unequal.
Did the loss of staff increase your work pressure?
Definitely. We do a maintenance job.
When an elevator was out of order, there used to be 20 workers to deal with it.
Of course, this makes a difference.
The government requires that workers work in pairs,
so the company is violating the regulations by not ensuring workers work in pairs.
It turns a blind eye on the safety regulations.
[The workers' second demand: Increase the staff to ensure that workers work in pairs.]
The Electrical and Mechanical Services Department sometimes does on-site inspections.
They know we are not working in pairs 100% of the time, but they do not intervene.
Some work really requires two people, but there is no supervision.
In case of an accident, will they admit that you are not working in pairs,
or do the workers have to bear the responsibility?
Thyssen distributed a notice, saying that if there are not enough workers to get the job done,
we have to report it to our supervisors. Well, you can report that to them,
but it does not make any difference.
Do the supervisors allocate the work to the workers...
Yes, but there is no additional workers, so how can they arrange it?
Even if you report it to the supervisor or boss, nothing will change.
We have been working here for many years,
but our basic salary is only 7,000 to 8,000 HK-Dollars.
The newly employed staff gets more than 9,000.
So it is more than the old workers get.
[The workers' third demand: Increase the salary of the maintenance staff to a reasonable level.]
For how many years have the old workers been working for Thyssen?
They have been working here for 4 or 5 years at least.
They are all technicians, but some earn only 7,000 HK-Dollars something.
That is unreasonable!
The workload for the old workers is even much higher than that of the new workers.
The newly employed staff gets more than 9,000, but we have not gotten any pay rise!
The company started talking about criteria for a pay rise,
something like taking exams and looking at work experience and performance.
Some elder experienced workers are afraid of exams.
It doesn't make sense. The new workers earn even more than the old workers...
Yes... yes... that's the case.
The company says all of us get the official minimum wage of 28 HKD per hour,
but the company does not know the market wage, or it knows it, but does not do anything.
How is the wage level in other companies? The hourly wage?
The hourly wage varies, as every company has its own way to calculate,
but technicians earn at least 8,500 HKD per month.
Even newly-employed workers earn at least 8,500?
Yes.
So the company could afford to pay its old workers this amount, but it just doesn't.
It just muddles along... It knows it, but just doesn't pay...
and workers have worked so hard... but haven't gotten what they deserve...
This is unreasonable.
How long did it take to organize the strike?
About one month.
In the past few weeks we met a few times with the company representatives,
but without any results.
After many negotiations there was still no real offer.
Negotiations are even just the softest form [to confront the employer].
But they did not respond and made no real offer.
We have given them so much time.
We told them that we would go on strike if they did not meet our demands.
I heard some high manager saying:
"I cannot do anything if you decide to go on strike! Just go on strike!"
They just put us off. They are not sincere at all!
Yes. Going on strike is only the last resort.
How can workers support a family with this low wage?
That's why we stand up.
If the company gave us a reasonable wage, we did not have to go on strike.
The whole morning, the company representatives ignored the workers.
The workers sang songs together to strengthen their morale.
Negotiations did not start before 2 pm.
The workers' demand: 1. Wage increase for technicians up to a reasonable level.
2. Hiring of more workers to fulfil the promise of "working in pairs" made 3 years ago.
3. A guaranteed and paid resting time; not more than 24 hours of continuous work.
On the first day, the company representatives did not respond to the workers' demands.
The workers decided to go to the headquarters the next morning at 9 a.m. and to strike for a 2nd day.
Supporters are welcome after 9 a.m. Thyssen's headquarters are at:
Ground floor of the Hilder Centre, 2 Sung Ping Street, Hung Hom, Hong Kong.
We want to thank every Thyssen worker who strikes for the rights of the workers!
Interviews and film editing: Selina (Ah Yi)
Interview assistants: Pang Jin, Cham, Julian, Napo
Made by v-artivist