史無前例的中國員工罷工

史無前例的中國員工罷工

全中國的沃爾瑪雇員針對該公司的新工時制度發(fā)起了一系列罷工，這是一波史無前例的全國性罷工。成都的罷工工人背后的標(biāo)語寫著“沃爾瑪工人，雄起！”

測試中可能遇到的詞匯和知識：

bout 回合；較量[ba?t]

Communist party 共產(chǎn)黨

strike 罷工；打擊；毆打[stra?k]

electrician 電工；電氣技師[,?lek'tr??(?)n; ,el-; ,i?l-]

solidarity 團(tuán)結(jié)，團(tuán)結(jié)一致[,s?l?'d?r?t?]

All-China Federation of Trade Unions 中華全國總工會

window-dressing 門面措施；弄虛作假['wind?u,dresi?]

閱讀馬上開始，建議您計(jì)算一下閱讀整篇文章所用的時間，對照下方的參考值就可以評估出您的英文閱讀水平。

如果您讀完全文用時為： 那么，您的閱讀速度相當(dāng)于 每分鐘閱讀的英文單詞數(shù)

3分42秒 母語為英語者的朗讀速度 140

1分12秒 母語為英語的中學(xué)生的閱讀速度 250

1分17秒 母語為英語的大學(xué)生的閱讀速度 350

0分48秒 母語為英語的速讀高手 1000

Walmart workers launch wildcat strikes across China （480 words）

By Yuan Yang in Beijing

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Walmart staff across China have launched a series of wildcat strikes against the company’s new working-hours system, in an unprecedented bout of nationwide co-ordination by workers. Employees in one store in the southern city of Nanchang went on strike last Friday. By Monday the action had spread to a second store in Nanchang and to stores in Chengdu 1,500km away and Harbin in the country’s north-east.

“We will continue the strike until the company gives a satisfactory reply,” said Duan Yu, who works at the Walmart store in Bayi Square, Nanchang.

The strike has realised the Communist party’s fear of co-ordinated cross-country labour unrest just as China prepares to lay off millions of workers as a result of the industrial slowdown. The number of worker disputes in the country has soared in recent years, doubling from 2014 to reach 2,774 protests in 2015, according to China Labour Bulletin, a Hong Kong-based workers’ rights organisation.

“It is unprecedented for workers to organise this way,” said Anita Chan, a professor of sociology at Australian National University. “Most strikes are in one workplace. This is different — Walmart has many stores in China and uses the same management methods in all the stores. So these workers understand everyone’s situation: they are all the same.”

The rapid organisation of strikes has been helped by the mobile messaging platform WeChat. Zhang Jun, a former electrician at the Walmart store in Yantai City, Shandong, was one of several workers who set up the first Walmart Chinese Workers’ Association WeChat group.

WCWA has since multiplied into more than 40 WeChat groups, with about 20,000 members — a fifth of Walmart’s workforce in China — despite members suffering threats from Walmart management, according to Mr Zhang.

Chinese workers have extended their solidarity to Walmart’s workers in the US, who also lack the backing of an official union. “We have reason to believe that your conditions today will be ours tomorrow,” read an open letter to Walmart US workers on the WCWA blog.

“We support Walmart workers in the US for the Fight for 15,” read one placard at the Walmart Chengdu strike, referring to the campaign for wages of $15 an hour.

Chinese Walmart staff have cast aside the country’s only officially recognised union, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, which has been accused by labour activists as being apathetic to their cause. The ACFTU could not be reached for comment.

“The [official union] are basically unreceptive to workers’ opinions. They are window-dressing for Walmart,” said Zhang Liya, WCWA’s chief representative.

According to Prof Chan’s research, after two months of experimenting with official democratically elected Walmart union committees, the ACFTU signed an agreement with the company in 2006 that allowed Walmart to set up management-controlled unions instead.

“The work union [leaders] are appointed by management,” said Ms Duan. “They ask us to return to our jobs.”

請根據(jù)你所讀到的文章內(nèi)容，完成以下自測題目：

1. Which city’s employees went on strike firstly last Friday?

A. Chengdu

B. Nanchang

C. Harbin

D. Hong Kong

2. What is the difference between this strike and the other strikes before according to the Australian professor?

A. persistent

B. violent

C. nationwide

D. transitory

3. How to advertise and organize the strike rapidly by Zhang Jun?

A. Messages

B. video conference

C. WeChat group

D. personal interviews

4. Who has been allowed to set up the Walmart official union?

A. the ACFTU

B. the official union in US

C. the top of the Walmart

D. the Chinese government

[1] 答案 B. Nanchang

解釋：上周五南昌的工人開始罷工，周一擴(kuò)大至哈爾濱、成都等地。

[2] 答案 C. nationwide

解釋：澳大利亞國立大學(xué)社會學(xué)教授Anita Chan表示：此前大多數(shù)罷工只是發(fā)生在一個地方。而沃爾瑪在中國有許多分店，所有分店采用同樣的管理方法。因此這些員工了解，他們存在同樣的不滿。

[3] 答案 C. WeChat group

解釋：罷工的迅速組織得益于微信。沃爾瑪煙臺分店前電工張軍是首先設(shè)立沃爾瑪中國工人協(xié)會微信群的人之一。

[4] 答案 C. the top of the Walmart

解釋：中華全國總工會在2006年跟沃爾瑪簽署協(xié)議，允許該公司設(shè)立由管理層控制的工會，工會領(lǐng)袖由沃爾瑪管理層任命。