Hong Kong: after 36 days, bar benders' strike ends

The 36-day bar benders' strike ended last night when, by a show of hands in the street, striking workers unanimously agreed to support the deal worked out by their representatives with employers: a daily wage of HK$860 and an eight-hour working day.

According to extensive, generally sympathetic coverage in SCMP (behind paywall, no link), the employers also agreed to the bar bender's demands for a review of the salary package in March 2008.

The bar benders -- they work on the steel frames which form the skeletons of high-rise buildings -- had previously worked a nine-hour day for a daily rate of between HK$800 to HK$850, down from the 1994 daily rate of HK$950.

So now, instead of working nine hours and getting eight fifty, the bar benders will be working eight and getting eight sixty. OK, this falls short of their demand for eight and nine fifty, but sometimes you have to know when to fold your cards and walk away. There is a time to start a strike, and a time to end it. This was the time to end it. Working eight hours a day is better than working nine. Plus, overtime, if there is any, kicks in earlier.

This was the longest strike in Hong Kong in thirty years and as well as general coverage at the strike's conclusion, SCMP focused on one of the strikers: "Strain of epic tussle reduces hardened iron man to tears".

Mr Wong Wai-man (50) has been a bar bender for thirty years. Married with two sons (the eldest is a university student, the youngest still at school), Mr Wong did not even finish primary school. Interviewed by SCMP reporter Agnes Lam, he said:

"Most workers have very little education, like me. I have really learnt a lot during this labour movement, such as how to answer reporter's questions and how to bargain with contractors.

We are no longer working as individuals. We are a group and we are united. Whatever comes from the negotiation table does not really matter. Unity is the most precious thing we have won."

Other lessons learned? The pro-democracy Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (CTU) raised money for the striking bar benders and actively supported them. According to SCMP, CTU has vowed to continue helping the bar benders build a stronger union. The pro-Beijing Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU) which "represented" the bar benders at talks, was accused by bar benders on the last night of the strike of "betrayal" and only showing up for talks with the employers.