Employers, in particular the multinational companies, have not shown good faith in bargaining with workers and the trade union during corporate re-structuring and retrenchment. About one third of the strike cases documented in 2013 are disputes related to retrenchment and restructuring. Workers and trade unions are not informed and consulted in advance. Employers reject to negotiate with workers’ representatives or the trade union even when workers declare strike action. Instead of consulting with the trade union at the enterprise, Walmart closed down 20 stores after securing the consent of the local government. Workers were informed of the decision and were given 15 days to sign up to the severance compensation required by law without any negotiation. Walmart did not abide by the legal requirement to negotiate an agreement 30 days before terminating the employment contracts.
147 employees and the store union representatives at Huaian store of Jiangsu province were informed about their dismissals on 5 November 2013, a fortnight before the store closure. On 3 December 2013, employees of Chengyang store of Qingdao city were given two weeks to sign the company’s severance plan. On 5 December 2013, a hundred workers from Jinghua store in Luoyang city blocked the street to protest the store closure right after learning that the store was closing on 19 December. Previously another hundred workers of the store had been retrenched by the management using different excuses. Workers at the Maonshan store of Liaoning province also staged a protest and clashed with police on 19 March 2014. On 5 March 2014, 143 workers at Chengde store in Hunan province staged a protest and demanded economic compensation from Walmart. The mediation meetings facilitated by the government and labour bureau representatives were targeted at pressuring the enterprise level unions to drop their demands. Walmart refused further negotiation with the union and announced the automatic termination of workers’ contract after 28 March 2014.
