Recently, I re-read Jqr’s factory diary and felt deeply touched. At this moment, I suddenly remembered an article I had not written before, and now I am going to supplement it.
Summary of the background:
This company I joined through Zhaopin’s agency on April 6th. The promotion was as follows: daily wage of 150+ yuan, provided meals and accommodation, one day off per week, guaranteed commuting, etc. Additionally, there was a 400 yuan fee to be paid upon joining. Due to lack of social experience at the time, I hesitantly paid the 400 yuan insurance fee. The agency explained: “Reimbursed after working for a month,” so I thought it was good and gradually completed the onboarding procedures. It should be noted that this procedure was merely an agreement, not a standard labor contract, not even a labor service contract. Yet, the labor intermediary claimed it was direct recruitment by the company. This also exposed some of these agencies’ deceptive practices to earn commissions.
Details of this “contract” are as follows:
The so-called “dormitory” is a room for over 20 people that has never been renovated. The dormitory is located in a relocated building within a community, and the living environment is extremely poor—dusty, prone to illness, no heating equipment, and since it is on the 29th floor, opening windows for ventilation makes it very cold. I used to sleep wrapped in a cotton-padded jacket for a period. Not only was the dormitory environment terrible, but the commuting situation was also extremely bad. The commute involved two medium-sized trucks, both second-hand vehicles. One was overcrowded with 20 people in a two-square-meter space, severely overloaded, risking a crash that would be deadly for everyone; the other carried about 10 people, with serious oil leaks and poor shock absorption, risking breakdown. The living and commuting conditions were terrible, and the working conditions were equally harsh. This intermediary served logistics companies like JD.com, Cainiao, SF Express, and China Post. The loading and unloading positions demanded high physical strength, handling weights from 15 to 50 kg. During 21 days of work, I experienced slight arm strains. I worked mainly in loading/unloading (also did some sorting). These factories are typical “temporary worker” factories, with temporary workers accounting for about 60% or more. They earn very low wages for work that exceeds their labor value. Most workers in these factories are over 45 years old, either dismissed from previous factories or not meeting the age requirements of other factories. They are very hardworking and have no complaints. Compared to us short-term “temporary workers,” they seem like “leaders.” They endure long hours of fatigue work (night shifts), and work-related injuries are common—fingers caught, toes crushed, fractures, etc. In our dormitory, there was a worker whose finger was caught and amputated, with blood and flesh visible, and bones blackened. The management of these companies is composed of thugs and hooligans who act as lackeys, often insulting and harassing workers unjustly and arrogantly. This has led to frequent fights in the factory. I also had public disputes with them to oppose their bullying. Sometimes the factory does not provide meals; vending machine snacks are twice as expensive as outside retail stores, and meals cost 12 yuan.
Not only are the working environment, housing, and commuting terrible, but the intermediary companies are also extremely rogue! These agencies are covered in tattoos, showing their “terror,” and speak to workers very arrogantly. Previously, the agency advertised sorting wages at 130+ yuan and loading at 150+ yuan, but in reality, wages were uniformly paid at 130 yuan, with some workers even being owed wages! Moreover, they charged various fees, such as accommodation, utilities, deposits, etc., all around 50 yuan. Investigations showed that some workers’ “contracts” were even different from what I signed. These agencies serve different companies’ HR departments and also sign labor contracts with other client companies.
This creates a process like this:
Through such deductions, our wages as temporary workers have been continually cut, leaving us with only a meager 130 yuan labor reward. Not only do the bourgeoisie act as exploiters directly, but these labor agencies also take a cut to serve as their running dogs.
Chinese agencies are thus hypocritical and shameless in acting as exploiters. The insurance fee, which once was claimed to be 60 yuan (upon recruitment), then increased to 120 yuan (during work), and even once to 240 yuan (upon resignation). Moreover, this fee is deducted from workers’ wages. If not working for ten days, three days’ wages are deducted (no wages paid for the first three days), along with deposits and insurance! So, if less than six days are worked, workers end up paying money. According to my investigation, workers say this is a common trick used by black agencies, based on their “industry rules”: if a worker participates in labor for a month, they get a bonus of 500 yuan, which is naturally deducted from the worker. If they leave early, they are also deducted 500 yuan as “insurance money.” Once paid, workers are passive from start to finish.
Workers share that they keep working only because of the deposit and the insurance reimbursement fee for a month. But after 25 workdays, the agency refuses to schedule shifts and forces workers to leave. They also recruit underage student workers in large numbers, exhausting them to earn “referral fees” or “insurance money.” Compared to the so-called “formal workers” paid 220 yuan per day, we only get 130 yuan (note: these wages are standard in Northeast China). Excluding the exploitation by the client companies, these agencies deduct nearly half of the wages! According to the old workers in our dormitory, this situation is especially common in China. They have participated in such labor multiple times. This fully demonstrates how shameless and disgusting Chinese agencies are!
As for why Chinese agencies are so shameless and vulgar, it is because after China’s reform and opening up, the state-owned system was transformed into private ownership of production materials, allowing factory owners to dismiss workers at will and create a reserve army of labor to exploit surplus value. Especially during the unemployment wave of the 1990s, a broad reserve army was formed. Many workers moved from one city to another without ever being hired by capitalists, starving or dying from illness, never finding a job until the end of their lives. During this period, petty bourgeois and bourgeois ideas flourished, with popular literature on scars, nihilism, and anarchist criminal thoughts, giving rise to a large number of thugs and gangsters, who are the main composition of agencies.
However, capitalist production is not always in a phase of economic crisis; its next cycle follows—recovery of production. In this context, many factories start up, and capitalists seek specialized “merchants” who sell labor power to serve the circulation of commodities. To ensure “product” quality, agencies also act as enforcers of the bourgeoisie.
As social production gradually involves workers in material labor, these “merchants” are composed of parasitic people who live off unearned income. Today, many of these are recent graduates who refuse to give up the exploitative idea of “doing less work and earning more.” They participate in “brain work” that requires no basic labor, performing indirect oppression. Another group includes thugs and local gangsters, who have developed a worldview of exploitation through their past practices—extorting protection fees, robbing, and other parasitic activities. They deeply worship bourgeois authority:
“The bourgeois authority believes that authority does not come from the support of the people but is established through bluffing” — Ideological Struggle Guide
They are known for intimidation, extortion, violence, and oppression, shamelessly intertwined with the bourgeoisie to carry out parasitic exploitation—enemies of Chinese workers.
Proof of Chinese labor agencies participating in beating workers
This labor agency system exists in every capitalist country, but compared to China, these people are even more shameless and vile. Mao Zedong said:
“Revisionism coming to power is capitalism coming to power, and it is the worst form—fascism.” Today’s China is a fascist state. The bureaucratic monopoly bourgeoisie maintains brutal fascist exploitation, with a huge expenditure on violence agencies. They also seek to maintain their rule by recruiting gangsters and gang-related elements, which have become the main part of the state violence apparatus. Calling China a gangster state is not an exaggeration. This is the fundamental reason why Chinese agencies are worse and more vicious than Western capitalism. But whether “Eastern” or “Western,” agency systems serve the needs of capitalist exploitation—they are essentially enforcers and deceivers of workers. They are products of capitalist anarchic large-scale production and must end with capitalism.
May 5th Wage Claim Process
After experiencing these days of terrible conditions, I developed strong resentment towards the black agencies and repeatedly cursed them behind their backs, advising new workers to leave before suffering greater losses. On May 4th, a worker wanted to resign but had not been paid wages for a long time. It took about a day to process the wages and resignation procedures, and he had to pay more fees.
(That is: the insurance fee, which was once claimed to be 60 yuan upon recruitment, then increased to 120 yuan during work, and even once to 240 yuan upon resignation.)
This made the workers in our collective dormitory extremely angry. They wanted to help this worker recover his wages, but we lacked a serious discussion and were very disorganized. I also failed to lead well. I jokingly said, “Go on strike and cut their production line. Disrupt their shifts and refuse to work, to disgust them.” A worker responded passionately, “That’s what we should do. They disgust us, so we should disgust them back. If necessary, threaten them with jumping off buildings to demand wages, or puncture their fuel tanks.” Then he and some workers discussed whether to strike. He asked me, and I said, “I support you.” Soon, he gathered three more workers, making five in total, to discuss the so-called “strike.” But they were too hasty, without a concrete plan. After about an hour (around 5:30 p.m., close to our shift start at 7:00 p.m.), they pretended to leave and then returned to ask the agency why they bullied underage workers.
(Beforehand, they recruited three underage workers, who left due to poor conditions and failed to get their deposits back, even reporting to the police without result, and finally left.) I didn’t know they were about to strike, which made me extremely confused, panicked, and excited. Without much thought, I joined them. When we questioned the agency, they responded: “If you don’t want to work, just leave. None of your business.” Then, all five of us declared we wouldn’t work anymore.
(Before this, we had scheduled shifts, which also meant deductions from our wages.) We then called the police. Another worker reported: “There are illegal taxis, tax evasion, and unpaid wages here.” They said they would send police soon, but after an hour, police arrived with the company manager.
(It was obvious something was wrong—why was the manager with the police?) They confronted each other, but in reality, only three people, with the rest of the dormitory watching, including me, unable to act effectively, only showing panic. The manager was extremely arrogant and domineering, claiming in front of the police: “I broke the law, sue me if you want,” insulting us, while the police played the role of mediator, trying to reconcile the conflict. The police took a brief statement, saying: “I can’t handle this; you need to go to labor arbitration.” We questioned: “Isn’t this a workers’ country? Don’t workers have the right to recover wages?” The police replied: “Go to the police station or court tomorrow; arguing here is useless.” At this point, we (the three of us; two others were swayed by the agency, and another was a part-time college student who hated labor, had slept in the canteen twice for two hours each time, worked about ten days, and planned to leave after that. He thought it was too troublesome and simply left.) prepared to go to the police station for a new statement. A new police officer arrived in a police car, and we realized the previous police had no vehicle. The new officer was more serious, briefly took our statement, and said casually: “You can continue tomorrow at the police station or court.” He thought it was too late now to resolve. We returned to the dormitory, but then we were expelled. When I asked about wages, he said, “Not a penny.” So, we temporarily found a hotel to stay and planned to discuss and participate in the next day’s affairs.
Summary of today: Not prepared, the incident happened suddenly, and we didn’t develop a long-term plan with other workers before confronting the agency. I was only passively involved. I also failed to lead well, was very afraid, and this made the confrontation very isolated. Lacking legal knowledge, I could only argue helplessly. Moreover, I didn’t establish good friendships with workers, leading to isolation in a twenty-person dormitory. Other workers, pressed by livelihood, did not participate. The fundamental issue is the petty bourgeois ideology at work—since I am a student and a parasite, with “many backup plans” and “family support,” I didn’t confront the manager aggressively. Also, my introversion prevented me from loudly asserting power and inviting others to join. Because this was my first such incident, I was overwhelmed, confused, and panicked. Many workers (on our side) were unaware that we had directly confronted the manager without informing them, leading to dispersed strength and eventual defeat.
May 6th Wage Claim Process
Today, a wounded worker came here in the morning.
(He is very close to us. He didn’t participate because he was hospitalized due to his injury. He had been hospitalized for several days. The worker I mentioned earlier whose finger was amputated. He paid insurance, but the medical expenses were not covered by insurance; instead, they were “privately” settled, with the agency paying around 10,000 yuan in wages. We then found a loophole—that this “insurance fee” might be insurance fraud. We guessed correctly—they were cheating on insurance. So, we took this evidence to the police station. His condition worsened (not properly treated), with bones turning black. We advised him to continue seeking medical expenses at the hospital, but he decided to give up. We also wanted to give him legal advice, but he said “no need,” and due to my own petty bourgeois ideas, I thought it was troublesome and didn’t help him. I don’t know what happened afterward because I was leaving tomorrow—May 7th—and returning to my hometown.)
The small hotel bed was shared with him, and after some conversation, we set out. At this moment, the manager called and said, “Wages have been paid to you, please receive them.” He thought I would take the money and leave it at that, but we still went to the police station, prepared materials for “illegal taxi” and “insurance fraud.” We arrived at the police station, submitted the materials, and called the manager. The police were quite reasonable, saying some words like—“Everyone is having a hard time, especially temporary workers from out of town. Just settle the wages for my sake.” We then realized the difference from the previous police—how could they be so different? We concluded they were colluding.
(Now, Chinese police and agencies, even the bourgeoisie, have a shocking cooperation, jointly exploiting workers. This fully exposes how rotten Chinese society is!)
Finally, the police left, and we continued talking. We kept pressing about the “insurance” issue, questioning which company this insurance was from. The manager, feeling exposed, passively returned the deposit. We then hesitated, thinking that getting some wages back was already good (in fact, six days’ wages were robbed from me, including so-called missed work and insurance fees—if working a full month, it could be reimbursed. Feeling guilty, I didn’t continue). We decided to settle—accept the compromise and stop fighting (lacking legal knowledge). In the end, we concluded the wage claim.
Summary of today: Lack of fighting spirit, no active effort to help the injured worker claim more compensation (the effort came after our wage dispute ended). We failed to take the initiative, were satisfied with the status quo, and didn’t want to “make a fuss,” adopting reformist ideas. Through this incident, I gained a deeper understanding of how shameless and vile Chinese agencies are. Without our evidence, they wouldn’t pay a penny. Sharing among the community, I learned that a worker owed about 10,000 yuan in wages and was ignored even after pleading. I also realized the contradiction between theory and practice. I used to be a bookworm, not involved in production practice, which made me extremely shaky when I finally started to struggle, even falling into reformism. This incident also reflected my ideological problems—always wanting to promote “unity and harmony” bourgeois ideas, stemming from my past life experiences. When I was bullied, I was often PUAed, and I gradually became a mediator of bullying, always thinking “just let it go,” even beginning to understand the “bully.” If I continue to let this ideology develop, I might fall into the role of a traitor to the revolutionary movement. Therefore, overcoming this cowardly mindset is very necessary.