As China becomes more integrated into the global economy, its refusal to permit independent trade unions is fuelling worker unrest, especially in the country's north-eastern ''rust belt'' says a report released here Friday by Human Rights Watch (HRW).

''The Chinese Communist Party is facing a serious dilemma,'' according to Mike Jendrzejczyk, Washington director of HRW's Asia division. It claims to protect workers, but those very same workers are protesting in the streets.'' ''They want the right to form their own trade unions,'' he said.

''They want to have a voice in decisions affecting their work and their benefits.'' The 50-page report, Paying the Price: Worker Unrest in Northeast China , details three major worker protests in the region — home to large mines and refineries that fuelled China's rapid industrialisation over more than a half century — between March and May this year.

The cities of Liaoyang, Daqing, and Fushun all experienced unprecedented and prolonged demonstrations by tens of thousands of laid-off and retired workers, which in some cases froze industrial activity and transportation and sparked confrontations with police.

Unlike the recent repression of political dissidents and activists associated with the Falun Gong spiritual sect, the authorities reacted with caution and restraint in responding to the protests, reflecting concerns that a harsh clampdown could actually spark more widespread and violent opposition, the report says.

''Labour unrest threatens the legitimacy of the Chinese Communist Party in a way that other challenges do not: Article 1 of the Chinese constitution claims that China 'is a socialist state under the people's democratic dictatorship, led by the working class','' the report notes.

Greater backlash

''The government's response also suggests that authorities recognize the depth of dissatisfaction among laid-off workers and the popular support the cause might attract: authorities may fear an even greater backlash were they to be viewed as cracking down too hard on workers.''

Worker unrest has grown steadily since economic reforms launched in the late 1970s began to threaten a system known as the ''iron rice bowl'', which guaranteed lifelong employment with substantial benefits that ranged from free housing and health care to generous pensions and vacation allowances.

But as the economy became increasingly market-oriented and state enterprises were required to cut costs or privatise by the late 1990s, the iron rice bowl effectively shattered, particularly in the older industries that were unable to compete with foreign imports. Between 1996 and 2000, tens of millions of workers were laid off from state or privatised enterprises with joblessness in the ''rust belt'' estimated to be at least 20 percent in 2000 and probably significantly higher.

In most cases, laid-off workers receive few, if any, benefits. The government has also refused to let workers form independent labour unions that could press their grievances, despite China's ratification in 2001 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which guarantees workers the right to organise unions. Only the government-controlled All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) is permitted.

Adding fuel to the fire have been reports of widespread corruption, particularly concerning privatisation. In many cases, local Communist Party officials with senior posts in state or collective enterprises used their influence and connections to gain control of the operations after privatisation. Most analysts predict unemployment in the northeast could rise much higher as China accelerates its integration into the global economy.

Last December the country joined the World Trade Organisation (WTO), a step that requires Beijing to cut tariffs that protect many of China's older industries from foreign competition. Indeed, a commander of the People's Armed Police (PAP), the country's main anti-riot force, warned his troops in mid-March during a massive police and army operation to contain protests in Daqing that they could expect more similar ''mass incidents'' as China moves to comply with WTO conditions.

Workers protest

It is in that context that the north-eastern region experienced last spring's workers' protests. In Liaoyang, in Liaoning province, laid-off metal workers capped four years of petitions and complaints and smaller protests against the management of the Ferroalloy Company with a series of much larger demonstrations lasting 10 weeks. Four of their leaders were jailed and charged with ''illegal assembly, marches and protests',' which could bring them each five years in prison.

In Daqing, arbitrary changes to severance agreements for laid-off workers of the Daqing Oil Company provoked protests that ran over three months and resulted in the detention of 60 oil workers and the mobilisation of thousands of police and army reinforcements. In the coal-mining town of Fushun, thousands of laid-off miners and workers from nearby factories repeatedly blocked roads and rail lines to protest conditions of their severance before they received the equivalent of nine dollars each in additional compensation.

Common to all of these demonstrations, according to the report, is a ''deeply rooted sense of injustice. The workers felt strongly that they were not receiving their due under existing regulations and had virtually no outlets other than street demonstrations to push for a change in the status quo''. ''These workers are protesting the hypocrisy of the Chinese government,'' said Jendrzejczyk.

''Although the Chinese constitution calls workers 'the masters of the country', the government treats protesting workers as criminals.''

In the face of this discontent, the ACFTU has done virtually nothing on behalf of the workers, and nothing at all to help their detained or imprisoned leaders, says the report. HRW calls on Beijing to immediately release all those detained for peaceful activities related to organising workers and to recognise their right to organise independent labour unions pursuant to international agreements it has signed or ratified. — IPS