By Sha Hua HONG KONG The delivery man doused himself in gasoline and set himself on fire. Engulfed in flames, he protested for what he said were unpaid fees from a business tied to Chinese technology giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. I want my blood- and sweat-money back, said the man, Liu Jin, covered in ash, as police officers tried to rush him to the hospital on Monday, a widely shared video posted on social media showed. The 48-year-old Mr. Liu, who survived but suffered severe burns, is one of the millions of workers in China s tech sector whose plight has ignited online denunciations of the country s internet giants by internet users and state media. The outcry shines a spotlight on the grueling working conditions and hard-edge labor practices that many blue- and white-collar workers face as the internet companies they work for battle over users.
Thousands of temporary workers staged a mass protest outside the Pegatron factory in Shanghai on 19 December after managers at the Taiwan-owned electronics company ordered them to relocate to another facility in Kunshan. [1]
Workers who refused to relocate because of family commitments in Shanghai would be dismissed and forfeit their bonuses, which could amount to more than 10,000 yuan, a substantial proportion of their overall remuneration.
Police were called to the scene and scuffles broke out before managers agreed to revise the relocation policy and let workers keep their promised benefits.
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CLB pointed out in our analysis of the challenges faced by workers in the Global South during the Covid-19 pandemic, workers in China and India deal with very similar exploitative practices across a broad spectrum of industries, such the garment and transport sectors. [2] The electronics industry can be added to that list.