Crane operators protested across China during Labor Day demanding better pay and an eight-hour working day, some told the Global Times on Tuesday.
"The protest, involving about 20-30 operators from different private companies, has been going about a week with no result," a crane operator in the city of Anji, East China's Zhejiang Province, told the Global Times. He did not give his full name.
"The drivers are 24 hours on call with a monthly salary as low as 4,000 yuan ($611), and they have nowhere to live but a large, poor container on the construction site," another operator from Chengdu in Southwest China's Sichuan Province, who asked to be named "Jack Li," told the Global Times on Tuesday.
The job was "high risk," Li said. "What the drivers are asking for is a monthly salary of at least 7,000 yuan and normal working hours."
Phone calls to the company where Li works went unanswered.
Photos of similar protests and strikes allegedly held in other regions including Shijiazhuang, the city of Zhumadian in Central China's Henan Province, Yuncheng in North China's Shanxi Province and East China's Jiangxi Province are circulating on social media.
The police department of Shijiazhuang denied there was any protest, while police departments in other cities could not be reached for comment.
"There are at least 10,000 crane operators in Chengdu appealing for a salary raise," Li said.
Chinese labor laws have no clause stipulating whether or not a strike is legal, making it difficult for labor arbitration commissions and courts to judge, legal experts said.
China since March has been encouraging more truck drivers, delivery persons, nurses and security guards, who are mostly migrant workers, to join the All-China Federation of Trade Unions and so better protect their rights and interests, news site cri.cn reported in April.
As of September, the federation had about 303 million members, of whom 140 million were migrant workers, China Central Television reported in January.
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