September, 2007

An Audacious Act of Hopeless Metal Workers:
An Economic Perspective on the Strike

Chan Ka Wai

Though being said to be the longest-running industrial dispute in the territory for 30 years, the strike of metal workers did not bring them to a roundtable talk. There were critics saying that the government should be more actively involved in the negotiations process before the situation went out of control. On the other hand, there were comments saying that the government was folding its arms since the Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (HKFTU), which took the leading role of the negotiation in the first place, had asked the government not to intervene to prevent the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) from winning political points, after the metal workers turned to HKCTU upon dissatisfactory negotiation outcomes.

Chan King Chi, scholar with a labour background, suggested that the government’s apathetic attitude towards the strike was an old habit since Hong Kong was under colonial rule. In fact, similar mass strikes took place in Britain a few decades ago. The government seldom played an active role in settling the dispute; rather they barely acted as a messenger.

The negotiation process took much longer than the government expected. For one the negotiation used to be settled by the pro-government union and the Bar-bending Contractors Association and everything seemed to have fallen into place before the negotiation broke off. Second, the government had not expected the strikers would persist for so long.

Unlike many other sectors, there are no funds supporting the workers on strike. The longer the negotiation goes, the worse for the metal workers. Since the workers are not backed up by any funds, they always stay in a weakened position and will eventually give in for a piece of bread.

This time, the situation was completely different from the tradition. Though not earning a single dollar for the past month, the metal workers persisted and showed no sign of terminating the strike. Despite their limited bargaining power, the metal workers were so determined in the pay negotiation as they are no longer afraid of losing anything, or we should say they have nothing more to lose. A friend of mine who is an employer told me that the metal workers struck on the grounds that the supply of job is far from sufficient. The recovery of Hong Kong’s economy did not bring a change to the situation. Some of them even had to look for a job in Macau.

In spite of Hong Kong’s rapid economic development, the metal workers did not gain from the growing prosperity. In reality, the metal workers are just part of the grassroots workers who do not share the benefits of the strong economy. Economic development does not mean a good distribution of the wealth of the territory. In fact, the gap between the rich and the poor grew at the same pace as the economic growth. Further, grassroots workers are always victims of inflation, as their salary does not increase with the economic growth. The current economic state has brought frustration but not wealth to the metal workers. They kept fighting until they were offered a fair deal.

The issue is not just about the metal workers; it is also about challenging a trend in Hong Kong employment practices. The protest reflected that current government policies are not able to cope with the new problems brought by economic growth. The metal workers’ fight is only a manifestation of exploitations that other workers are facing in Hong Kong. Hence, the dispute is just an alarm for similar strikes in the future. With its current initiatives, the government will not be able to deal with the upcoming challenges unless it tries to work on the economic structure of Hong Kong.

Mr. Chan Ka Wai is an associate director of Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee.

Editor’s note: The metal workers called off their 36-day strike on 12 September after seven rounds of talks with the contractors.