"New normal? Strike Map shows steady trends in worker actions in first half of 2017", 15 Aug 2017

In the first half of 2017, Chinese worker collective actions recorded by CLB’s Strike Map confirm that trends observed since 2016 are consistent with the new economic normal. Collective worker actions in retail and services, at almost 22% of the total number of incidents recorded, are consistently on par if not exceeding those in the traditional export-oriented manufacturing sector, which stood at 21% in the first six months of 2017, a trend first registered in the third quarter of 2016...

With the government’s emphasis on domestic consumption, labour unrest has simultaneously shifted from the factory floor to consumption-oriented economic sectors like catering and transportation...Consistent with 2016 patterns, worker protests in manufacturing sector remained at around 21% of the total, with Shandong and Guangdong provinces registering the highest number of cases...

Unpaid wages remained the leading demand across all sectors, totalling a staggering 66% of a list of demands that ranges from unpaid social insurance (6.3%), factory relocation or closure (5.1%), pay increase (3.8%) and unpaid pensions (3.1%). This list is a reflection of the poor enforcement of China’s own labour laws, and how workers are still struggling for their most basic legal rights, like the lack of a labour contract...In the absence of government statistics since 2010, CLB Strike Map statistics have always been an indicator of trends in worker actions in China...it’s quite likely only a small tip of the iceberg.