Transport workers welcome higher wages and better conditions_美文

Transport workers welcome higher wages and better conditions

The contract also stipulates that each worker should enjoy at least one day off every week and a new collective contract will be negotiated once a year.

Zhan Jun, chairman of an industrial trade union in Shenyang, said he found that many of the 14 public bus companies in Shenyang, are run on a small profit and some have experienced difficulties.

"Slim profits mean slim wages for workers," he said.

Zhan said the 14 companies hired 1,640 drivers in 2011, but only 101 stayed.

"Workers in the industry earn around only 60 percent of other local workers," he said.

"And the divorce rate is high."

Workers in Shenyang had an average monthly income of 3,700 yuan in 2011, according to Zhan.

China plans to introduce collective wage negotiations in 80 percent of corporate units that have set up trade unions by the end of 2013.

About the broadcaster:

Rosie Tuck is a copy editor at the China Daily website. She was born in New Zealand and graduated from Auckland University of Technology with a Bachelor of Communications studies majoring in journalism and television. In New Zealand she was working as a junior reporter for the New Zealand state broadcaster TVNZ. She is in Beijing on an Asia New Zealand Foundation grant, working as a journalist in the English news department at the China Daily website.