[RSCT] Rural school teachers strike for promised higher pay

[S. Kashdan]

Rural school teachers strike for promised higher pay



China Labour Bulletin, May 2009



http://www.clb.org.hk/en/node/100446



China’s 1993 Teachers’ Law gives school teachers the same status as local 
civil servants, and a wide range of guarantees designed to protect their 
income and benefits. However, as with all laws designed to protect the 
interests of workers in China, the implementation of the Teachers’ Law has 
been less than thorough on the ground. In rural Chongqing, for example, 
teachers’ salaries are currently about one third or even one quarter of 
other government employees.



In late October and early November 2008, primary and middle school teachers 
from several rural counties and districts in Chongqing staged a series of 
strikes demanding higher pay. CLB Director Han Dongfang talked to three 
teachers, including a teachers’ representative who took part in the 
negotiations with the local government, about teaching conditions in 
Chongqing, the strikes, and their frustration at the lack of government 
action.



Han Dongfang’s first interview was with a teacher from Sanhui Primary School 
in Qijiang County, who did not participate in the strike and preferred not 
to give his name. This teacher, a 14-year veteran with a salary of just over 
1,000 yuan per month, said that although there was no strike activity at his 
school, “Of course I’m not satisfied with the current level of pay. We 
primary school teachers...no matter what we are feeling, when we are in the 
classroom we feel we should respect the children and respect our education 
work. But in terms of wages, to be honest...actually, the Teachers Law and 
the Compulsory Education Law both require that our wages not be lower or 
higher than the level of local government employees. But the government has 
really not achieved this. We certainly are not very happy about this, and 
then there is price inflation...in 20 years we still would not be able to 
afford a house...everyone in this profession is without a permanent place to 
live, this certainly impacts on education.”



“To tell the truth,” the teacher continued, “teachers here, especially in 
our school, have a lot of complaints. But we are still doing our job; we do 
rather well in terms of teachers’ ethics. Other schools, as far as I 
understand, many schools, are conducting ‘soft strikes’ or formal strikes, 
that sort of thing.”



This teacher’s school was in a remote location but was “rather well known” 
and had been visited by government officials and experts, and was even the 
subject of a report on the television news. “Why do we do so well?" the 
teacher asked. “The key is the spirit of sacrifice on the part of our 
teachers." But, the teacher continued, “Although our teachers did not 
participate in the strikes, we are paying attention to the issue...the 
teachers certainly supported the strikes.”



This teacher indicated that there was more at stake than simply wage levels: 
“Although it is a question of wages and benefits, it actually manifests more 
as a question of teachers’ status... We feel like our Teachers Law and 
Compulsory Education Law are only there for display, like puppets."



Talent drifting away to the cities



Another difficulty facing the school was the loss of teachers to urban 
schools which offered better pay and benefits. “Especially the younger 
teachers, they adapt well to our new curriculum reforms...they have a 
greater ability to meet teaching challenges...so, countless teachers either 
find connections or pass the test to get into the city schools, and the 
benefits at city schools are much better, so the loss of our teaching 
resources is quite serious." In looking at the whole situation, “We feel 
quite helpless, really." The teacher indicated that this situation did 
nothing to improve the urban-rural education gap, which the government had 
acknowledged and was ostensibly trying to resolve.



The government and the Education Commission have been giving teachers the 
line that, “the merit pay  system is coming,” this primary school teacher 
continued. But “the teachers’ resentment is focused...on the autumn of 
2007...when the government employees were beginning to implement merit pay. 
They promised us...they would begin paying it to the teachers in January of 
2008. But when January came, nothing happened. Then the government and 
Education Commission told us that it would be in June of 2008. When June, 
2008 came, we were told we needed to take the national situation into 
account due to the May 12 earthquake and the Olympics; now the state is busy 
with other things and this work has stopped temporarily. They said September 
of 2008, but it was not implemented then, either.”



When asked about the role played by the union, the teacher said that 
although all of the teachers were union members, the union was “totally 
powerless” to intervene on their behalf. The teacher said that all the union 
did was explain “that state policies were still being formulated, and an 
emergency meeting was being held by the Chongqing municipal finance and 
human resources bureaus and their response to the teachers would be posted 
on the internet. Now it is on the Education Commission website, and it says 
that when government’s policy comes out, Chongqing will implement teacher 
merit pay as soon as possible. Actually, I went to the website of the 
municipal Education Commission in Nanchang in Jiangxi, and I could see that 
their merit pay has already been implemented." This was also the case in 
Guangdong. “If the state policy were not formulated yet,” continued the 
teacher, “places like the city of Nanchang, I would think, certainly would 
not be able to set such a policy, do you see?”



This teacher provided the phone number of another teacher, Mr. Tao, who had 
recently arrived to teach at a rural school which had participated in the 
strike. Mr. Tao said the action at his school began on 23 October, but he 
was careful to point out that the teachers did not strike by cancelling 
classes. “We are all in class; I did not say strike. We are just gradually 
reducing the amount of lecturing by teachers and allowing, cultivating the 
students capacity for self-study and self-research. It is not a strike." Tao 
called it “cooperative study,” in which the students work with each other 
and the teachers “intervene a bit." Tao acknowledged that they were “trying 
this out for the first time." The action lasted for about a week, and the 
school had already basically returned to its usual teaching protocols. The 
action resulted in the county-level Education Commission stating that it 
would come up with a “quick resolution,” with regard to the issue of wages 
and benefits.



Local government stalling



One day before the interview with Tao, teacher representatives held a 
meeting with Party and government officials, representatives of the county 
Education Commission, and school principals; attendees at the meeting 
numbered over 70. Each of the 20 schools attending had two representatives, 
one chosen by the administration, and one recommended by fellow teachers. 
One of the teacher-designated representatives told Han that the government 
was stalling and playing for time. “There was no response; they were just 
trying to placate us,” he said.



This teacher said his colleagues did not bother to go to the union with 
their problems, because the “they don’t believe in their own organization! 
And they are rather weak...they perform almost no function." There was no 
union representative at the negotiation meeting. The teacher believed that 
there was “some sincerity” on the government side during the negotiation, 
but he was “not optimistic; there is still no response at all...the actual 
problem was not resolved.”



The teachers’ most basic demand, said this teacher representative, was to 
“carry out the requirements of the Teachers Law” in terms of wages and 
benefits. “The merit pay system for government workers began last year; it 
is already being implimented,” the teacher continued. “Now our wage level is 
approximately only one third or possibly one quarter of that of government 
workers...[we want to] close the gap!”



The government’s response at the meeting included a statement that there was 
“difficulty for the local government in terms of financial expenditure,” 
said the teacher, as well as a statement that “a specific solution was being 
studied and was not ready yet." No specific timeline was given; “they just 
asked us to wait!" The teacher representative acknowledged that, if the 
teachers were to push too hard, “it certainly would not make the leadership 
happy, right?”



There was a certain amount of concern about the teachers’ lives being made 
more difficult as a result of the strike action. The action started with 
about 80 percent participation by teachers in the county, but after “the 
leadership did some work” to dissuade teachers, only 20 schools, or about 
one fifth of the county schools, were represented at the meeting.



Asked if the teachers would take similar action again if no positive results 
were forthcoming, the representative said, “To tell you the truth, I support 
education work and I love the students and the school. But now, truthfully, 
first off, teachers’ wages are just too low. If we are having some 
difficulties with our family, if we have difficulty just supporting our 
families, we’ll really not have the heart to do our education work well. 
This is a common sentiment among teachers."



He agreed that the situation might lead to more teachers leaving, and “also 
another phenomenon, which is, if we continue as things are, and even if 
teachers return to class, they may be demoralized and slack off in their 
work. This might become a common thing in the county or even the whole 
municipality. This might seriously impact the quality of education overall.”



Han Dongfang’s interview with the Chongqing teachers was broadcast in three 
episodes in November 2008. To read the full Chinese transcript or listen to 
the audio file of the broadcast please go to the workers’ voices section of 
our Chinese language website and follow the links.



Published on CLB (



http://www.clb.org.hk/en)