Catherwood LibraryILR School

China is preparing to downsize its state-owned steel and coal industries by laying off more than 1.6 million workers – the country’s largest restructuring of state jobs since the early 2000s - despite an increasing trend of labor strikes throughout the country. The number of strikes has risen from approximately 1200 during the years of 2011-2013, to over 2700 protests in 2015 alone, with projections that it will continue to grow in 2016. The government is promising to help the laid-off find new employment by allocating $15.6 billion over the next two years, in part out of concern that continuing unrest will coalesce into a larger political movement. Many of the striking workers are unaware of the breadth of China’s unrest – which has affected almost every province - due to strict restrictions on communications and social media. Poor working conditions, lack of enforcement of labor laws, late and/or poor wages, and lack of benefits have contributed to the protests, which have sometimes turned violent, as in the case of a migrant worker in Ningxia who set fire to a bus, killing 17 people.