Solidarity and solidarity with the striking workers of Yi Lisheng in Shenzhen

Zhou Yi, China Labor Forum 11 December 2025

A week-long strike by predominantly female workers at an electronics factory has drawn national attention. The strike, which began on December 4th at Yilisheng Electronics Factory in Shenzhen, Guangdong, protested against what it perceived as a disguised form of layoffs. The factory, known as a "land of women" due to its high proportion of female workers, is demanding either the restoration of overtime to guarantee their income or compensation based on their length of service.

Not only did all 3,000 workers at the factory go on strike, but after the key strikers were arrested on the 9th, they quickly surrounded the factory gates, chanting slogans demanding the police release them immediately. This pressure successfully forced the authorities to release them that evening.

The employers issued an ultimatum, stating that workers who continued striking would be considered to have resigned without compensation—a strategy that led some workers to return to work. However, a large number of workers withstood this intimidation and continued their strike.

Given that Chinese workers under the CCP's authoritarian rule lack the right to organize and act collectively, and that their struggles are often quickly crushed by the state apparatus, the Yi Lisheng workers' strike, which lasted for a whole week, sets an important example. This also foreshadows the possibility of more, larger, and longer-lasting worker strikes in the near future as the economic crisis deepens.

Extremely low wages and excessive overtime
Workers are demanding the restoration of "normal overtime" because, under the CCP's authoritarian capitalism, standard hourly wages for manufacturing workers are generally so low that it's barely enough to make ends meet, forcing them to endure excessive overtime. Currently, Yilisheng workers receive a meager monthly take-home pay of less than 2,000 yuan (below Shenzhen's statutory minimum monthly wage of 2,520 yuan).

E-Sound manufactured electronic products such as Bluetooth headsets and once employed tens of thousands of workers. However, like countless other companies, the factory shrank as capitalists sought lower wages in other countries like Vietnam or relocated due to the trade war.

The company racked its brains to lay off employees, so in October of this year it canceled the overtime system, pretending to comply with the legal working hours, but in fact it was to drastically reduce the workers' monthly take-home pay, "legally" forcing them to leave without losing money.

The day before the workers' strike, the company announced that it would only provide a one-time living allowance of 200-300 yuan to employees who did not work overtime in December, but this was far from enough. These developments ignited the workers' anger, and the strike broke out on the morning of the 4th, with thousands of workers gathering near the factory gates and blocking delivery trucks.

Neither of the two bad options should be chosen.
The working class should not be forced to choose between two terrible options, but should instead fight for a 40-hour workweek without pay cuts. This requires a struggle demanding no layoffs, focusing on significantly higher wages, and improved working conditions. If employers refuse, arguing that meeting these demands would be unprofitable under the current economic crisis, workers must respond by demanding immediate nationalization of factories. If capitalists cannot guarantee jobs and wages, then it is time for the working class to seize power.

In 2010, workers at a Guangdong automobile factory, through coordinated efforts across multiple factories, secured a 35-40% wage increase. The workers also demanded the formation of an independent union (a demand that ultimately failed, despite vague and half-hearted promises from the CCP to strengthen workers' collective bargaining rights). Capitalists and their authoritarian regime, out of fear, used substantial wage increases as a "carrot" to stifle the workers' calls for an independent union.

The CCP and its corrupt so-called labor unions always side with the capitalists. Workers need independent unions to organize, strengthen their power, and fight against the capitalists; independent unions are also a key platform for formulating the best demands of the struggle. The determination of the striking workers, led by Yi Lisheng, is admirable and deserves the support of all workers. For authoritarian capitalism, this is yet another ominous warning: the working class will never continue to tolerate further layoffs, pay cuts, and the deprivation of basic rights.
https://chinaworker.info/zh-hant/2025/12/11/48433/

Back




© Copyright BRICS From Below