The May 2009 'On the Spot' newsletter by GoodElectronics portrays the Ole Wolff Yantai Workplace Union. A unique initiative of Chinese women workers; a struggle for labour rights against all odds.
This 'On the Spot' newsletter by GoodElectronics portrays the Ole Wolff Yantai Workplace Union. A unique initiative of Chinese women workers; a struggle for labour rights against all odds.
In October 2008, OWY downsized its Yantai workforce down to around 30 workers. The workplace union was left with eight members among the remaining workers, amounting to a severe
crippling of the workplace union. In April 2009, Ole Wolff announced ‘that we have stopped all operations in our Yantai factory due to serious drop in orders from our customers caused by
the current economic crisis worldwide’. Is this a classic case of cutting and running, of a company dodging its responsibility for its ex-workers? In all events, Globalization Monitor stresses that Ole Wolff has not been relieved of its obligation to respond to its ex-workers outstanding demands, including adequate compensation, and the handing over of workers’ employment files. At the moment, the justified demand for acknowledgment of the workplace union as an equal interlocutor by the management is not enforceable since the plant is no longer operational.
