SUPPORT THE CHINA EARTHQUAKE RECOVERY FUND
The Asia Foundation's affiliate Give2Asia has established the China Earthquake Recovery Fund to support earthquake relief and recovery efforts. Learn more and donate now to the fund.
In China's busy, bustling factories, millions of workers and their supervisors communicate poorly, if at all. Workers and managers often have not been trained to discuss policies or benefits proactively. In increasingly large numbers, workers move from job to job. Meanwhile, as the financial crisis takes its toll, supervisors cope with high turnover rates and volatility. In response, in 2008, we expanded our highly-successful migrant worker rights initiative -- a decade-long effort of on-the-ground collaboration with women's federations, academies, and community groups -- and applied and carried out a "double-bottom line" program, the twining of worker satisfaction and business productivity. The program is based on our conclusion, informed through surveys and assessments, that new opportunities for both workers and management lie in common interests. With improved incentives, workers will benefit from stable, long-term employment, and managers will save money recruiting and training new workers. For maximum impact, we also supported the provision of legal services for migrant workers through a legal aid network, extending across the country from Shenzhen in the south to Beijing in the north. Close to seven hundred migrant worker cases have been handled, and now, a new litigation fund is being launched, which we hope will lead to improved and more equitable medical care and insurance for migrant workers.