Two reports on Sinohydro worker disputes

Niger union slams Chinese firm's labour practices, threatens to organize
strike
14 July 2013, BBC Monitoring Africa

Text of report by French state-funded public broadcaster Radio France
Internationale on 12 July

[Presenter] In Niger, the Union Mine Workers, Synamin, is making its
voice heard. The Synamin has given an ultimatum to the Chinese
state-owned company, Sinohydro.

It condemned the dismissal of workers and a hostile attitude to the
union. The Chinese firm has up to today noon to react failure to which
the union will call the thousands of its members to stage a strike from
Monday [15 July]. Moussa Ibrahim is Synamin's national secretary-general.

[Ibrahim] These people terminate members of staff from employment every
day. They do it without any due consideration. They terminate simple
workers from employment. They also sack employee representatives, and
especially those representing workers. The representatives are sent to
work at the construction site for one year. In Sinohydro, the employees
are under placed under permanent stressful conditions. That means the
employess work under pressure. There are many sqabbles between the Niger
nationals and the Chinese. [Words indistinct] The job is very precarious
for the staff whether you are a representative or not. They want to fire
all the employee representatives who are fighting for workers' rights.

[Presenter] The interview was conducted by Jean-Pierre Boris.

Source: Radio France Internationale, Paris, in French 0530 GMT 12 Jul 13

***

Illegal Chinese Workers in Central Vietnam Causes Social Insecurity

13 July 2013, Vietnam News Brief Service

Hundreds of Chinese people who are working without license in a
hydropower project in Vietnam�s central province of Quang Nam have
caused social insecurity to the locality. The Thanh Nien newspaper
reported Tuesday.

The workers who were hired by Sinohydro Corporation, the Chinese
contractor of the 156-MW Song Bung 4 hydropower plant, without
permission from local authorities have been involved in fighting,
stealing, assaults to local people.

Over the past three years, the Chinese workers with the majority of
untrained ones turned Ta Poo, the peaceful mountainous commune, into a
place of chaos with frequent fighting and social evils, said Krieng
Dieu, head of the locality's police.

At most projects in Vietnam, regardless of sectors, Chinese contractors
normally use untrained workers from China without permission from
Vietnamese authorities. The total number of those workers may be thousands.
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