Joint Statement from the Hong Kong Civil Society

Stop the Suppression!
Release All Arrested Jasic Workers and Their Supporters Now!

Although the workers’ struggle to form a trade union in the Shenzhen Jasic Technology Co. Ltd. has persisted for more than one month, there are still no signs of resolving. Not only the workers’ demand to form a union of their own choosing within the legal framework have yet to be realized, their struggle is met with suppression from the State. Thus far, a total of 14 workers and more than 50 members of the Jasic Workers Solidarity Support Group have been arrested and are still under criminally detention. We would like to express our extreme resentment.

In the small hours of August 24, the police deployed a number of riot police to raid the residence of the Support Group in Huizhou, forcibly arrested more than 50 workers and students. Undeterred by the mass arrests on July 27, workers and students who support the struggling Jasic workers established the Jasic Workers Solidarity Support to demand for the rights to form union and the release of the arrested workers. Since then, university students from across the nation have joined together and arrived at Shenzhen to show their support in the form of speeches, cultural performances, and demonstrations. However, before the detained worker are set free, members of the Support Group are now also put behind bars.

Among the arrestees from the August 24 raid are LAN Zhi Wei, YU Kai Long, YU Wei Ye (three workers released on bail from the earlier mass arrest), YUE Xin (fresh graduate of the Peking University), ZHAN Zhen Zhen (the founder of the Campus Workers Investigation Project of the Peking University), FENG Ge (Ex-President of the Anti-poverty Association of the Peking University), and also other students from the Renmin University of China, Nanjing University who initiated the petition supporting Jasic workers. Together with Shen Mengyu and others who had been taken away since August 11, closed to 70 people are now either detained or placed under house arrest. The latest wave of suppression is the largest suppression on labour activists since the “1203 Incident” in 2015.

These workers organized themselves together because of the company’s illegal penal system, insufficient contribution of housing provident fund and other illegal labour misconducts. Initially, the Pingshan District Federation of Trade Unions recommended that they should organize their own trade unions. Thus, the workers applied for the establishment of a trade union and started to recruit members and subsequently collected consents from nearly 90 workers to form a trade union. However, the six workers’ leaders, including Mi Jiuping and Liu Penghua, were later dismissed by the company and are now detained by the police on charges of “picking quarrels and provoking troubles” for more than a month.

The All-China Federation of Trade Unions have claimed to promote trade union reform since 2015, but before any meaningful result materializes, we have witnessed workers’ rights to freedom of association are yet again, being let down by the ACFTU. The Jasic workers who applied for the establishment of a trade union under the law were eventually beaten, dismissed, arrested, imprisoned, and the students who supported them were also not spared from suppression. Here, we would like to pay tribute to the Jasic workers and their supporters who choose to fight for labour rights until the end. And despite members of the Support Groups are now arrested, we vow to carry on with the fight and continue to support the Jasic workers.

Therefore, we demand:

1. The Chinese Government to immediately release the workers and supporters of the Jasic Workers Struggle and drop all charges against them;

2. The ACFTU to immediately stop all efforts to suppress workers’ right to freedom of association;

3. The Jasic management to reinstate all the dismissed workers and recognize the labour organization formed by the workers.

Initiated by: Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions

Endorsed by 33 local groups 聯署團體（排名不分先後）︰

社會民主連線
香港輔助教研人員工會
大學師生監察無良企業行動
影行者
左翼廿一
勞工教育及服務網絡
勞動力
全球化監察
天主教正義和平委員會
香港市民支援愛國民主運動聯合會
工黨
無國界社運
工學同行
社區前進
中國勞工通訊
香港眾志
香港基督徒學會
華人民主書院
良心之友
亞洲移民人士聯盟（AMCB）
菲律賓移工工會（FMWU）
香港亞洲家務工工會聯會（FADWU）
尼泊爾家務工工會（UNDW）
海外家務工工會（ODWU－HK）
進步家務工工會（PLU－HK）
泰國移工工會（TMWU）
民主黨
香港基督徒學生運動
朱凱廸新西團隊
基督徒關懷香港學會
蒞地基督徒
亞洲跨國企業監察網絡
社會及政治組織從業員工會

Chinese version : 香港公民社會聯合聲明】中國黑警停手！立即釋放佳士工人及聲援團！