Recently, starting from January 2025, strikes among construction workers across China have been occurring frequently, with a noticeable increase in frequency compared to previous months.
In the past half month since January, the following construction worker strikes have been reported online: Shanghai construction workers occupying companies, Guangxi Sanhua Construction strike, Nanchang construction workers striking, Guangzhou construction workers smashing buildings, Chongqing renovation workers blocking roads, and so on.
Besides refusing to work for capitalists, the striking workers have also taken actions such as occupying company or project sites, or even damaging the construction projects themselves.
It is worth noting that almost all these construction workers have been owed wages for at least a few months, sometimes several years. This situation is not an isolated case involving just a few construction companies or individual workers, but is caused by the brutal construction industry system in China. Because the construction industry generally pays wages based on annual cycles, sometimes semi-annually or annually, usually about a year. Before wages are paid at the end of the year, the site typically only provides workers with a “living allowance” to cover basic needs, which is very small—only a few hundred yuan, or around two thousand at most.
Today, with less than half a month until the New Year, an old saying goes: “Year-end, year-end, the rich celebrate the New Year, the poor pass through the customs.” Many workers in the construction industry are precisely those depicted as the latter in this saying. Because they are unsure whether the foremen (general contractors) and bosses will actually pay the wages promised at the end of the year. Since January, the situation has become very clear—many construction workers have had their year-end wages taken by capitalists for various reasons and cannot get their money. This is not just happening in a certain county or province; it is a nationwide issue. As a result, construction workers across the country have repeatedly initiated strikes this month to protest. Capitalists use unpaid wages to push them into despair, and workers respond with strikes to fight back.
The brutality of China’s imperialist construction industry is not limited to the wage system. Many construction workers, especially migrant workers, often leave their hometowns to work at construction sites elsewhere. This is because rural construction projects are fewer compared to urban ones, and the industry often employs labor outsourcing, with workers being hired in different locations from where they work. After signing contracts with intermediaries or foremen, some migrant workers are taken to other places to work, often living in site dormitories. There are few days off at construction sites, and the New Year holiday is sometimes the only time migrant workers can go home to visit their families. Moreover, construction sites often have rules such as: if a worker runs away midway, they will be blacklisted and all wages will be withheld.
On May 1, 2018, during Labor Day, construction crane operators across several provinces launched a general strike. Looking at the present, although construction workers in various provinces are still acting separately, it is believed that it will not be long before this nationwide union is realized.