Morning of 27 Feb. 2016, Pouchen workers kept on spilling into the street, and National Highway 1K was heavily congested.
P.Thao * Danlambao’s collaborator – Three days in a row, tens of thousands of Pouchen workers have been out on strike despite efforts to ease the growing unrest of the Labor Federation and other concerned agencies in Dong Nai province.
Tension escalated in the afternoon of 26 Feb.2016. While the workers were struggling for their legitimate interests, a plain-clothes cop suddenly rushed in with a knife in his hand and crazily stabbed strikers.
The morning after, 27 Feb. 2016, Pouchen workers continued spilling into the street demonstrating, and National Highway 1K near Hoa An commune, Bien Hoa City, Dong Nai was jammed.
Salary deducted owing to sick leave
The cause of the strike, as reported earlier by Danlambao, is that Pouchen Co. applies illogical and harsh policies on salary and bonus deduction.
Specifically, employees here are classified into three levels: A, B and C. Each worker has 100 ‘bonus points’ per year. In case of deduction,his bonus will be cut accordingly.
As regulated by the company, when an employee is absent without leave, he’ll be deducted 13 points. Even when he’s on sick leave of absence, he’ll be deducted 3 points.
Being absent without leave, he’ll be deducted 13 points andclassified into “Level C”. This means all his monthly subsidies and year-end bonuses will be cut.
These policies are making the workers’ already meagre income suffer more.
No longer did workers trust the “representative” organizations such as the Labor Union or the Labor Federation, they took matters into their own hands and stood up for themselves in their struggle for the legitimate interests.
Strikers crazily knifed by a cop
Sixteen thousand workers were simultaneously out on strike in the 25 Feb. afternoon in protest against the company’s illogical policies.
The strike continued unabated on the second day. The workers openly waived the “representative” role of the provincial Labor Federation in dealing with the company management.
At 15:00 pm the same day, the situation grew chaotic as a plain-clothes cop showed up out of nowhere, crazily knifing the nearbystrikers.
At least 4 workers were stabbed and bloodied with lots of injuries.
Faced with the workers’ fierce reaction, several cops wearing uniform immediately rushed in to rescue this agent.
A workers’ video clip showed one of them was knifed; his hand bathed in blood. In the meantime, the culprit was taken into a car protected by many uniformed police officers.
Nguyen Thanh Hai, a police agent of Dong Nai province, knifed and injured 4 workers. Photo: GNsP
Hundreds of workers at once swarmed around the vehicle to “cross-examine” the plain-clothes agent and prevent him from escaping.
The video clip showed the frightened face of the culprit, though guarded by his accomplices, in front of the infuriated workers.
It was not until 18:00 pm the same day, after three hours, the vehicle carrying the culprit was able to leave the scene.
According to the official Dong Nai website, the cop knifing strikers is Nguyen Thanh Hai, currently a police officer of Dong Nai.
The strike quickly turned into a demonstration on the morning of 27 Feb. 2016. Pouchen workers spilled the street and national highway 1K near Hoa An commune, Bien Hoa, Dong Nai was paralyzed.
Once again, the workers kept on waiving the “representative role” of the Labor Federation and agencies in Dong Nai.
Under increasing pressure, the company management had to make an announcement in the 27 Feb. afternoon to stop implementing the inappropriate policies of labor classification.
Tens of thousands of Pouchen Co. workers won a glorious victory; at the same time, this was an embarrassing failure of both the Labor Federation and the agencies concerned in Dong Nai province.
