Migrant workers feel the pinch amid crisis

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-03-02 12:28

Help At Hand, But More Needed

The migrant workers union gives each worker a tag. It states their vocation on one side, and the other has a phone number for labor disputes.

Job seekers sit while browsing newspaper for vacancies at a job fair in Beijing Sunday, March 1, 2009. [Agencies]

"We give out the tags free," Zhang says. "We even write the vocations for those who can't read or write."

Zhang tells her staff to go through newspaper classified ads everyday. "We note the requirements and information, and put them on the billboard." Zhang also calls acquaintances to ask if they need workers.

As unemployment rises, salaries fall. Qin says he could have earned 1,500 yuan a month as a chef back in Shandong Province. He left his family to work in Shenyang because it paid more. But now, it pays just 1,200 yuan.

Zhang estimates employers have cut salaries for laborers by 20 percent, which is unacceptable for many job-seekers.

After years of urban life, many migrant workers are no longer willing to return to farming. Having worked in restaurants for a decade, Qin says he can't be a farmer anymore, cooking is more respectable.

Another chef from Henan Province, who declines to give his name, says his farm has long been rented out, and he has worked in the city for more than 10 years. "What can I do in my village?"

The government of Liaoning Province last month announced that migrant workers were eligible for small loans of 30,000 to 50,000 yuan if they want to start their own businesses.

About 1.5 million people in Liaoning, including 700,000 rural migrants, have received free training since 2005, and more than 60 percent of them have found jobs, says Wang Chenxin, assistant director of the Liaoning Provincial Labor and Social Security Department.

South China's Guangzhou City, a major destination for migrant farmer workers, plans to extend online job interviews to farmers to a further 55 administrative districts nationwide this year.

The plan was unveiled last week, days after the provincial legislature approved plans for a channel targeting migrant workers on local TV station to tell them about job vacancies and job training.

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