http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/02/world/asia/teachers-strikes-spread-across-northeast-china.html 2014-12-01 13:41:00 Teachers’ Strikes Spread Across Northeast China The strikes over low salaries and mandatory payments to pension plans began last week and now encompass a half-dozen cities or counties. === Strikes by thousands of teachers frustrated by low salaries and mandatory payments to pension plans have spread across cities in northeast China, state news media reported on Monday. The strikes began last week and now encompass a half-dozen cities or counties surrounding the city of Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang Province, an area of the country where economic growth has long been relatively slow. Classes in some primary and high schools have been suspended, the reports said. Teachers are asking for raises and for the government to end a requirement that teachers make payments to a pension plan as part of an experimental policy. China National Radio reported that one teacher was making less than $400 a month after working for 25 years. A A The authors acknowledged the hardships on students caused by the strike. They wrote, “It hurts us that kids are affected because of this. We’re profoundly sorry. Whatever we owe the kids, we’ll make up for in the future by being available all the time.” In recent years, there have been more reports in China of strikes by people in a wide range of low-paid occupations. The labor pool of younger workers is getting smaller. Because of cheap smartphones, workers are able to share information across distances about wages, labor conditions and acts of protest. A wave of strikes in 2010 at factories in southern China brought these issues to the fore. Furthermore, the growth rate of the Chinese economy as a whole has been slowing, and salary increases for lower- and middle-class workers have lagged behind inflation in many regions. The grievances over the teachers’ pension plan have arisen because of a pilot project undertaken by Heilongjiang Province and supported by the central government. The project, which began in 2004, is aimed at having government workers, including teachers, contribute part of their salaries to a centralized provincial pension payment plan for all citizens. Previously, government workers were exempt from making payments. An open letter circulating online said teachers should not be forced to contribute to the pension plan. The authors of the letter, teachers in the city of Shuangcheng, west of Harbin, said teachers in Heilongjiang should be required to make the payments only if such a policy is enacted across the nation. A report in Beijing Times said that the irate teachers in Shuangcheng were from elementary and junior high schools and had begun protesting with banners in front of the government offices on Nov. 24. A person answering the telephone at the education bureau of Shuangcheng declined to discuss the matter. A person answering the phone at the local propaganda bureau said officials in charge were not available to answer questions. People answering the telephones at four rural schools and four urban schools in the Shuangcheng area said the schools were operating normally. The wider protests throughout Heilongjiang began after teachers in the city of Zhaodong, in the same province, took to the streets in mid-November to demand higher salaries. The local government approved an average monthly salary increase of $125 and promised to investigate working conditions, state news media and Global Times reported. The teachers then went back to work. Last year, researchers at Peking University Strikes by teachers have taken place recently in other parts of China. Teachers at one junior high school in Guangdong Province protested in late October when the government began paying them about $260 a month after having promised a monthly salary of $800, according to a report on the website of People’s Daily, the main Communist Party newspaper. A similar walkout occurred in March at a kindergarten in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong. In early September, teachers at a high school in the city of Xiaogan, in Hubei Province, went on strike over what they called the government’s refusal to give them the proper status in the public employment system. The status helps determine details of their pension plans.