Several thousand Hong Kong activists hit the streets yesterday in May Day marches to protest over soaring rent and food prices there.
The demonstration came as Hong Kong ushered in its first minimum wage at HK$28 (US$3.60), a controversial measure that has divided labor and business groups for years.
Union critics hailed the pay floor as a step forward, but said it was not high enough for many low-income families struggling to make ends meet. Business groups have warned that the law will lead to widespread job losses among poor workers in the densely populated territory of 7 million, regularly credited as having the freest economy in the world.
Chanting slogans and banging drums and cymbals, the activists staged a noisy procession in the heart of downtown Hong Kong to demand stronger labor laws, with their ranks swelling to 4,000 by organizers’ estimates.
“Put an end to worker exploitation,” they called out in unison. “Paid rest days, raise salaries, fight inflation, resume public housing.”
An even larger protest was scheduled for yesterday afternoon, while thousands were also expected to march in Macau, the world’s biggest gambling hub. Like Hong Kong, the former Portuguese colony has seen property prices soar as critics worry about its gambling dependent economy.
A separate protest of about a dozen activists called for the release of detained Chinese artist Ai Weiwei (艾未未).
Hong Kong’s government has pledged to sell off more public land in a bid to cool red-hot property prices that have put home ownership out of reach for many residents.
Concern over Hong Kong’s growing income gap — which the UN Development Programme pegged in 2009 as the world’s widest among wealthy economies — prompted the government to usher in the new wage floor.
Many countries already have minimum wage legislation in place, with hourly rates in New York and London set between US$7.25 and US$9.90.
“We are in a new age — the implementation of the minimum wage is a big step forward for local labor rights,” said Pan Pey-chyou (潘佩璆), a legislator and a vice chairman of the Federation of Trade Unions (FTU).
Stanley Ng (吳永輝), the union’s chairman, called the new law a “victory.”
“Workers should be able to share society’s fruits of labor,” he said.
Hong Kong is famous for its free market economy and stunningly wealthy tycoons whose business empires span all sectors of the local economy and the world. However, the city is also home to hundreds of thousands of workers who live on hourly wages at times as low as US$2 an hour.
“Poverty is a very serious problem among our base-line workers and it is important for us to stand up and speak out today,” Ng said.
The union said it worried employers would try to circumvent the law by changing staff contracts to cut benefits and paid rest days.
“Hong Kong lags behind other countries in terms of protecting labor rights,” Pan said. “And there are still a lot of issues that need to be addressed. That’s why we have to keep pushing for labor rights.”
Hong Kong’s labor boss acknowledged that “teething problems are inevitable in launching a major initiative of such magnitude.”
“We are entering uncharted waters in Hong Kong’s social development,” Hong Kong Secretary for Labor and Welfare Matthew Cheung (張建宗) said in a statement.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in