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After their first strike three years ago had only brought short-term results,

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Thyssen-workers in Hong Kong decided to go on strike again against the unbearable exploitation.

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In the morning of the strike Thyssen representatives refused to negotiate with the workers.

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During lunch, we talked to two workers...

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TV-news-report: A group of workers were discontent about the treatment of the company

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and decided to go on strike.

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They stated that they would only provide emergency service.

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Thyssen did not respond to this moment.

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The HK Electrical and Mechanical Services Department expressed its concern over the issue.

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This morning, some workers protested outside the Thyssen headquarters.

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They complained about the long working hours, as they always need to work for 33 hours at a time.

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Local resident: Of course I am worried. I live at the top of the building, on the 21st floor.

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I am not young anymore, and how could I walk up the stairs?

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Two thirds of our colleagues came out today,

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and the remaining one third was responsible for the emergency services.

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We did not want to cause inconvenience for the passengers.

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If the company refuses to solve the problem as soon as possible,

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we will take our action to a higher level.

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The night shift might not start working today.

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It all depends on the attitude of the company.

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ThyssenKrupp is one of the 500 biggest companies in the world.

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It is a giant transnational company.

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Today, we are asking for an increase of the basic wage.

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We absolutely do not believe,

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that such a big company cannot afford this, right?

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Yes!

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A company spokesman said, the highest decision maker of ThyssenKrupp (Hong Kong)

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is not in Hong Kong at the moment. Only the Repair and the HR managers will attend the meeting.

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The head of the company is not here, but the manager of the HR department.

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Are you worried? The meeting this morning has been delayed for three hours.

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What if the delay will last for many days?

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We are not really worried,

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as there must be more than one person in charge in such a big company.

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Other responsible staff can also negotiate with us.

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I have only one child.

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The burden of a child depends on its age. How old is he?

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He is in Secondary 2 [13 years old].

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Still a long time ahead [until his child can go out to work].

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How much is your basic salary? (Another interviewer: 11,000 HK-Dollars.)

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11,000 a month is not very much for a family with a kid.

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I depends on the overtime work I can do to support my family.

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How many hours do you work every week?

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More than 100 hours weekly.
-- More than 100?

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[The workers' first demand: Staff should not work continuously for more than 24 hours.]

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That is terrible. It is even longer than doing two normal full-time jobs.

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100 hours per week, that is more than 15 hours a day.

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Yes.

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If you have just 9 hours for sleeping, eating and communting,

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you have hardly any time to be with your family...

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Even when you are back at home, you need all the time to sleep...

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Yes.

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Your life has been sold to the company.

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How is your work schedule?

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Normally I work from 8:30am to 5:30pm.

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A night shift lasts from 5:30pm to next morning 8:30am.

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Except for Sunday, we continue to work during the day.

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People in this sector have been depending on overtime and shift work to increase their salary.

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How long do you work overtime? What has been the longest shift?

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The longest?

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The maximum shift is two days continuous work.

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A day and a night and another day and another night.

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And maybe another day before you get off.

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That is more than 48 hours.

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Yes. It only happened recently as a lot of the workers have left.

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In the past this rarely happened.

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At most you had a night shift every other day.

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It changed because many of us resigned for a higher paid job elsewhere.

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The low salary lead to the loss of staff, and this increased the remaining workers' workload.

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More than 20 of us left in the past two months. They moved on to better jobs.

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That's many.

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Yes. Already before they resigned there was not enough staff,

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but now it got more serious.

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Did the company discuss with the union (how to solve it)?

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No, the company only said that there was still more than enough staff.

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They calculated the staff according to how many elevators each worker has to look after.

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But they did not allocate the work well.

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Some workers have to look after 18, some after 30. It is very unequal.

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Did the loss of staff increase your work pressure?

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Definitely. We do a maintenance job.

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When an elevator was out of order, there used to be 20 workers to deal with it.

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Of course, this makes a difference.

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The government requires that workers work in pairs,

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so the company is violating the regulations by not ensuring workers work in pairs.

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It turns a blind eye on the safety regulations.

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[The workers' second demand: Increase the staff to ensure that workers work in pairs.]

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The Electrical and Mechanical Services Department sometimes does on-site inspections.

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They know we are not working in pairs 100% of the time, but they do not intervene.

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Some work really requires two people, but there is no supervision.

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In case of an accident, will they admit that you are not working in pairs,

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or do the workers have to bear the responsibility?

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Thyssen distributed a notice, saying that if there are not enough workers to get the job done,

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we have to report it to our supervisors. Well, you can report that to them,

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but it does not make any difference.

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Do the supervisors allocate the work to the workers...

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Yes, but there is no additional workers, so how can they arrange it?

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Even if you report it to the supervisor or boss, nothing will change.

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We have been working here for many years,

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but our basic salary is only 7,000 to 8,000 HK-Dollars.

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The newly employed staff gets more than 9,000.

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So it is more than the old workers get.

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[The workers' third demand: Increase the salary of the maintenance staff to a reasonable level.]

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For how many years have the old workers been working for Thyssen?

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They have been working here for 4 or 5 years at least.

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They are all technicians, but some earn only 7,000 HK-Dollars something.

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That is unreasonable!

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The workload for the old workers is even much higher than that of the new workers.

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The newly employed staff gets more than 9,000, but we have not gotten any pay rise!

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The company started talking about criteria for a pay rise,

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something like taking exams and looking at work experience and performance.

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Some elder experienced workers are afraid of exams.

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It doesn't make sense. The new workers earn even more than the old workers...

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Yes... yes... that's the case.

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The company says all of us get the official minimum wage of 28 HKD per hour,

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but the company does not know the market wage, or it knows it, but does not do anything.

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How is the wage level in other companies? The hourly wage?

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The hourly wage varies, as every company has its own way to calculate,

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but technicians earn at least 8,500 HKD per month.

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Even newly-employed workers earn at least 8,500?

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Yes.

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So the company could afford to pay its old workers this amount, but it just doesn't.

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It just muddles along... It knows it, but just doesn't pay...

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and workers have worked so hard... but haven't gotten what they deserve...

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This is unreasonable.

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How long did it take to organize the strike?

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About one month.

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In the past few weeks we met a few times with the company representatives,

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but without any results.

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After many negotiations there was still no real offer.

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Negotiations are even just the softest form [to confront the employer].

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But they did not respond and made no real offer.

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We have given them so much time.

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We told them that we would go on strike if they did not meet our demands.

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I heard some high manager saying:

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 "I cannot do anything if you decide to go on strike! Just go on strike!"

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They just put us off. They are not sincere at all!

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Yes. Going on strike is only the last resort.

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How can workers support a family with this low wage?

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That's why we stand up.

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If the company gave us a reasonable wage, we did not have to go on strike.

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The whole morning, the company representatives ignored the workers.

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The workers sang songs together to strengthen their morale.

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Negotiations did not start before 2 pm.

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The workers' demand: 1. Wage increase for technicians up to a reasonable level. 

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2. Hiring of more workers to fulfil the promise of "working in pairs" made 3 years ago.

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3. A guaranteed and paid resting time; not more than 24 hours of continuous work.

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On the first day, the company representatives did not respond to the workers' demands.

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The workers decided to go to the headquarters the next morning at 9 a.m. and to strike for a 2nd day.

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Supporters are welcome after 9 a.m. Thyssen's headquarters are at:

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Ground floor of the Hilder Centre, 2 Sung Ping Street, Hung Hom, Hong Kong.

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We want to thank every Thyssen worker who strikes for the rights of the workers!

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Interviews and film editing: Selina (Ah Yi)

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Interview assistants: Pang Jin, Cham, Julian, Napo

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Made by v-artivist