Thirty-five miners were reported dead yesterday and another 16 missing in two coal mine accidents in northern China that underscore the dismal plight of many Chinese workers on International Labor Day.
The accidents came as China pledged to improve worker's rights and as a Hong Kong-based labor rights group warned that a lack of independent worker's organizations was contributing to the appalling safety record in Chinese mines.
A gas explosion ripped through a mine in northern Shanxi Province on Friday leaving 35 dead and one missing, while 15 miners were feared dead after a flood in an illegal mine in neighboring Inner Mongolia, officials and press reports said yesterday.
Shanxi Governor Zhang Baoshun was overseeing rescue operations and the investigation into the blast at the Liangjiahe state-owned mine near Linfen City, Hou Jieyan, a spokesman for the Shanxi Coal Mining Safety Inspection Bureau, said.
Although the governor interrupted his holiday to direct operations at the accident site, before the blast the mine had intended to work through the week-long labor holiday to avoid costly safety procedures.
"Under ordinary circumstances, coal mines do not take vacations, we must work continuously. If we want to stop work, then we need to go through all the safety inspections again and this is very troublesome," Hou said.
Hopes of saving 15 miners at the Xinyuan coal mine in Wuhai City, Inner Mongolia, were also fading as water levels in the mine shaft rose above the level where the miners were working, officials there said.
"According to the rescue team on the scene the level of water has exceeded the area where the miners were working, so it's difficult to say, they are trying their best to rescue them but the flooding is serious," an official named Xu at the Inner Mongolia mining safety bureau said.
The township-owned mine also had no plans to shut down for the labor day holiday, he added.
Xinhua news agency reported that the Xinyuan mine had been closed down on April 28 for safety reasons and was operating clandestinely at the time of the flood.
Coal demand has skyrocketed in energy-hungry China and mines have been working overtime under appalling safety conditions with nearly 7,200 miners dying in accidents in the first 10 months of last year.
"In China right now the most important thing is money, it is more important than the dignity of workers, than the rights of workers, the health of workers and the safety of workers," Han Dongfang, director of the Hong Kong-based China Labor Bulletin, said.
"May Day should be a day for awareness of labor issues and the difficulties workers are having, but now all the government wants to do is promote consumerism."
Han, who was jailed in the 1990s for forming illegal trade unions in China, has worked to monitor Chinese labor rights through his organization and maintains that workers have been unable to protect their rights due to China's refusal to allow independent unions and collective bargaining practices.
"Workers and farmers in China are the weakest social classes and they are mainly weak because they have no collective power, if you give them the freedom of association, then these groups would not be so weak," Han said.
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