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Africans Lash Out at Chinese Employers
By Robyn Dixon, Times Staff Writer
October 6, 2006

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationwo...home-headlines

MAAMBA, Zambia — Deep in the tunnel of the Collum
mine, coal dust swirls thickly, and it's stifling for
workers such as Chengo Nguni. He describes his
$2-a-day job with a sigh: His supervisor yells
incomprehensibly in Chinese. His rubber boots leak.
The buttons to control the flow of ore out of the mine
often deliver an electric shock.

But the worst thing about life in the Chinese-owned
mine in southern Zambia is that there is no such thing
as a day off. Ever.
When the government minister concerned with the
region, Alice Simango, saw the conditions at the
Collum mine, she wept on national television and
accused the management of treating workers like
animals, prompting the government to close the mine
for three days in July.

China's hunger for raw materials and energy is driving
new investment across Africa, with trade between China
and the continent up more than 300% since 2000 to more
than $40 billion a year. China is the main market for
Sudan's oil. It has invested in Nigerian oil, provided
oil-rich Angola with a $2-billion loan with easy terms
and improved relations with Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwean
regime, which is criticized by economists and human
rights activists.

Critics say Chinese environmental and labor standards
are often poor. In Ghana, environmentalists have
accused Chinese oil company Sinopec of desecrating a
national park.

In Zambia, there is a growing backlash over low wages
and poor conditions in Chinese operations.

At the NFC Africa copper mine in Chambishi, a
Chinese-owned operation in northeastern Zambia,
hundreds of workers rioted in late July over reports
that the management was reneging on a pay increase.
Four were shot and wounded by Chinese employees of the
company. Another was shot by police.

Like their counterparts at the Collum mine, the NFC
workers rail against poor working conditions, low pay
and lax safety standards. Last year, a blast at an NFC
subsidiary explosives factory in Chambishi killed
every worker on the site — more than 50 people. NFC is
a subsidiary of China's government-owned Chinese
Non-Ferrous Metals Corp.

The growing resentment sparked an acrimonious debate
in Zambia's recent presidential elections, with
Chinese Ambassador Li Baodong making comments
suggesting that Beijing might sever ties and investors
might pull out if leading opposition candidate Michael
Sata won the Sept. 28 vote.

Sata, who at one point threatened to expel Chinese
traders if he became president, lost the election, and
he alleged massive vote fraud. In the heat of the
campaign, his Patriotic Front claimed that the use of
Chinese computers to tally the count could skew
results in the government's favor, an accusation
strongly denied by Chinese Embassy officials.

Sata argued that most Chinese investors in Zambia were
exploiters who brought the country no benefit. He
accused Li of interfering in the election.

"I find the reaction by the Chinese government very
childish and dictatorial, " Sata said, accusing China
of campaigning for the ruling Movement for Multiparty
Democracy, which has been in power 15 years.

Critics say that safety standards in China's mines are
among the worst in the world and that Chinese
companies have exported low pay and hazardous
conditions to Africa and elsewhere. But a manager at
the Chambishi mine, Xu Ruiyong, strongly contested
those accusations, saying the mine has one of the best
safety records in the area.

The company recently reached an agreement with unions
to bring pay scales at the mine into line with the
national minimum wage. But workers contend that
employees doing similar work at other mines are paid
more.

For the miners toiling underground, submerged in their
own bread-and-butter struggle, the debates seem
remote.

"It's very little money," said Nguni, 25, describing
his job at the Collum mine. "There are no leave days.
These people are very stingy when it comes to money,
even though we make a lot of profit for the mine. We
are seen as nonentities. The mine management is just
concerned about profit, not human life."

The people of Chambishi were pleased when Chinese
investors took over a large copper mine in 1997 and
reopened it as NFC Africa in 2003. Many state-owned
mines, including the Chambishi operation, had failed
in the early 1990s.

"But people got very frustrated because of the working
conditions," said shop steward Angel Chama, 29. "At
the moment in the mining industry, people are not
happy with the Chinese investors. I think there's no
hope unless the government gets really tough on these
guys."

Albert Mando, general secretary of the National Miners
and Allied Workers Union, said that before the pay
deal was reached in July, the lowest-paid workers at
NFC got $14 a month. Under the deal, that was
increased to $68, roughly the country's minimum wage.

He said injuries were common and that workers were
often afraid to complain because they were hired on
one-year contracts and could easily be fired.

The union officials believe management is
"disregarding the labor laws of this country," Mando
said. "When you look at where these people come from,
we think they're not serious about safety. We feel the
government should be tougher."

Although the government mandates a minimum wage,
Zambia has some of Africa's weakest labor laws.

NFC employee Lassmithy Sakeni, 27, who was injured in
the July riots, said popular resentment toward the
Chinese in the area was growing.

"They're not liked," Sakeni said. "They're not wanted
here."

In late July, hundreds of rock-throwing workers tried
to force their way into the mining compound. They
later marched to a Chinese residential compound in
Chambishi township, where a company manager fired a
shotgun at the rioters, wounding four. A government
inquiry is underway.

"We saw a Chinese official was shooting at the miners.
The second shot hit me in the head," said Elias Siama,
32. "After being discharged from the clinic, I
reported for work, but I was told not to come to work
because I was seen as being among the ringleaders. "

Xu, the company official, said that Chinese mine
employees at the compound were terrified for their
lives and that the leaders of the protest should be
jailed for life.

But he acknowledged that the company had to
accommodate itself to local circumstances in Zambia.
With an eye to the long term, the mine's managers are
planning to contribute money to community projects
such as education and HIV/AIDS prevention.

"I admit that for us Chinese, we must learn something
new when we are operating a company in a foreign
country, to meet the cultural gap," Xu said. "I think
we are able to make things better."

Urraqmen Peshu

That is cause they exploit their own people in China as well. They think they can do it anywhere. It's still Zambia's fault as well for not enforcing their laws. China won't pull out with harsher laws. They need the raw material.

I have been looking for this article everywhere I heard about it over the news it is sad.. i also heard (abc radio) that people where killed; shot by the chinese and also some zambian forces

chinamen shooting up Afrikans in Afrika.

I tink its Pan-Afrikan time now if ever.

you dont need "pan african time" to solve this, the government needs to put its people first

Arabs killing Africans in Africa too. It's damn sad.

Shoot attacks on the non violent !Kung and Mbuti by other Africans need to be stopped as well. Humans need to learn to co-exist better.

To stop this recurring problem you do.

Its about curing the illness as well as the symptoms.