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Laid-off factory workers in China say prospects grim
2008-10-19
DONGGUAN, China (AFP) - Frustrated Chinese workers left jobless when a major toy maker went bust said Sunday they might have to go home in debt, as more factories face failure due to the global financial crisis. More than 100 employees of Hong Kong-listed toy manufacturer Smart Union again crowded outside its factory in the southern export hub of Dongguan on Sunday, two days after the firm announced it had gone into liquidation. The situation has highlighted the growing risk of instability in China's coastal manufacturing hubs as factories face financial difficulties that could possibly lead to large-scale layoffs. Laid-off migrant workers said job prospects elsewhere in southern China looked grim as soaring prices for raw materials and shrinking demand from the crisis-hit US and European economies squeeze manufacturers in the region. "We thought about going to Shenzhen or even Shanghai. But then factories are also closing down in those places," Song Xiaoguan, 25, told AFP. "If worse comes to worse, I may have to go back to my home in Henan. But the problem is that I had borrowed a lot of money from relatives and friends and I would not be able to repay them," he said. Another migrant, surnamed Xiu, expressed fear about returning to his native province of Fujian in the southeast, where the economy was in even worse shape than in Dongguan. "I do not want to go back home a poorer man, in debt, and unable to feed my family," he said. The workers were among the 7,000 people who were left jobless after the company, a major supplier of toys to US giants Mattel and Disney, announced on its website it had gone into liquidation on Friday. Local authorities have promised to pay the workers unpaid salaries amounting to 24 million yuan (3.52 million US) by Tuesday, Hong Kong newspapers reported Sunday. A Dongguan official was quoted by Sing Tao Daily as saying they had used up their entire year's budget to pay the workers for Smart Union. The company's shares on the Hong Kong stock exchange were suspended from trading on Wednesday. A number of businesses nearby have taken Smart Union's liquidation as an opportunity to plug their own manpower holes, setting up recruitment booths outside the factory over the weekend. But many of the newly jobless workers said they were unsure about the viability of those companies. Elsewhere, another 1,500 workers lost their job after BEP, a Hong Kong-listed electrical appliance manufacturer, closed down its production line in Shenzhen on Saturday. A statement issued by the company said the global financial turmoil had made it difficult to obtain funding from banks and other sources. Chinese state media reported last week that more than half of the nation's toy exporters had gone broke in 2008, hit by rising production costs, the stronger yuan and tightened safety standards.
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