Coke partner says to offer 'dispatch workers' staff status
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The students demanded Coca Cola apologize and pay Xiao Liang's medical costs, but in a letter to the New York-based NGO, Business and Human Rights Resource Center, the company maintained "Both our bottler and the contract labor provider … are dealing with the dispute effectively and appropriately…We understand that the contract labor agency has covered medical costs associated with the incident."
Xiao Liang told China.org.cn that Zhiqiang had in fact loaned him a sum of money that was not enough to cover his medical bill. Asked to clarify the position, Coca Cola told China.org.cn they would look into the matter further.
China's 2008 labor contract law was on the whole considered favorable to workers and was therefore controversial with both local and overseas employers. The American Chamber of Commerce in China opposed it, as did a number of well-know Chinese business leaders. Zhang Yin, the billionaire boss of Nine Dragons Paper, used her position as a member of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference to denounce it.
Since the law came into force, a number of small student groups have emerged in Chinese mainland to campaign for improved wages and working conditions, using the law and the Corporate Social Responsibility programs of major corporations as levers. In addition to the Coke Concerned group, there is another focusing on Disney and one campaigning on behalf of building workers affected by pneumoconiosis.
The Coke Concerned Group campaigns at universities around the country, playing a cat-and-mouse game with campus security staff who dismantle their poster exhibitions and disrupt their leafleting activities. One of the students, a tiny, irrepressible and optimistic young man, said he has been called in on numerous occasions by the security department of his university and warned to discontinue his activities or face unspecified consequences. But so far at least the group and its supporters remain undeterred.
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