Carnival workers strike over pay

AROUND 150 workers at the Shanghai Grand Carnival, which is in full swing in the Pudong New Area, took part in a strike over unpaid wages which lasted until the early hours of yesterday. At around noon on Thursday, they gathered at the entrance to the carnival venue, site of the World Expo, in their uniforms in a 14-hour protest at not being paid since the event opened on July 28. The workers said they were hired as entertainment assistants whose duties included explaining the rides to the public. Pudong social security officials said yesterday they had told the company in charge of the event to pay part of the employees' salaries. "The strike started from 12pm, and didn't end until 2am," said a carnival worker. "The salary on the contract was 11 yuan (US$1.7) an hour, but we hadn't received a single buck from the start." The strike had no effect on carnivalgoers, the employee said, as many assistants kept on working. One of the strikers made a video of the protest and uploaded it to the Internet. A man was shown telling them: "Either you go check in for work, or you leave." The instruction was greeted by catcalls from the protesters who said they would not leave or start working until they got their wages. Pudong officials said an initial investigation showed that the Shanghai Shanggong Labor Service Company had failed to give employees their salary according to their contracts. They ordered the company and the event's organizing committee to issue 100,000 yuan to be paid to the strikers. Employees also asked for compensation, but hadn't reached an agreement with their bosses. The case was still under investigation, the officials said. A spokesman for the organizing committee said the conflict had arisen because the foreign investors in the carnival had recruited many more assistants than were needed. The carnival, co-organized by the United Arab Emirates-based Freij Entertaining Co Ltd, was back in Shanghai after a six-year absence. In 2005, an Indian electrician was killed in a roller coaster accident! when he strayed on to the track.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

40,000 hairy crabs released in Yangtze

Image
THE city government yesterday freed 40,000 hairy crabs into the mouth of Yangtze River near the Qingcaosha Reservoir, the first step in a five-year campaign to repair the ecosystem to improve the water quality in the reservoir that provides tap water for millions of residents. The hairy crabs will help establish a complete food chain in the river to help more fish and other aquatic animals survive in the river, Zhuang Ping, deputy director of the East China Sea Fisheries Research Institute under the Chinese Academy of Fishery Sciences, told Shanghai Daily yesterday. The released crabs, about half female and half male, will eat plankton while some of their offspring will become food for meat-eating fish higher in the food chain, said Zhuang, who is leading the water-improvement program. "The better ecosystem the water has, the better its water quality will be," he said. With a capacity of 438 million cubic meters, the reservoir is providing tap water to about 10 million
Keep reading

Shanghai port consolidates its position as world's busiest

Image
SHANGHAI, the world's busiest container port, will consolidate its title this year and leverage its record throughput to become a multi-faceted provider of port services. The city, which overtook Singapore as the world's biggest container handler last year, saw its annual container traffic volume surpass 30 million 20-foot equivalent units (TEU) yesterday. The figure hits an unprecedented level in the world's port history and marks a new leg in Shanghai's voyage to become a global shipping center by 2020. China's remarkable trade boom is reflected in the Shanghai port numbers, which went from 7,951 TEUs in 1978 to 29.05 million TEUs in 2010. The city's customs oversaw a total of US$790 billion worth of imports and exports in the first three quarters of this year - a 19.3 percent year-on-year increase. And its port handled 23.9 million TEUs over the first 10 months, ahead of that of 23.56 million TEUs at Singapore Port. Shanghai International Port (Group) Co,
Keep reading

Praise, scorn for teacher's odd command

Image
A middle school math teacher has stirred controversy after forcing 20 of his students to slap their own faces for three minutes because they made noise in class and scored poorly on exams. Angry local residents are demanding that the teacher resign and asking the school to announce a punishment. But some of the teacher's students, including some who were forced to slap themselves, are calling for leniency. The incident occurred in a class at Donglu Middle School in Pudong on Tuesday when the math teacher surnamed Yang ordered 20 students in his class to slap their faces after he was irritated by them making noise in class. The students said Yang was known as a very strict teacher, so almost all the students obeyed his order and started slapping themselves in the face for about three minutes. Those who slapped too lightly were told by the teacher to slap harder, students told the Oriental Morning Post. Yang's behavior has sparked anger among local residents, especially so
Keep reading