TOPICS 

    Subscribe to our newsletter

     By signing up, you agree to our Terms Of Use.

    FOLLOW US

    • About Us
    • |
    • Contribute
    • |
    • Contact Us
    • |
    • Sitemap
    封面
    NEWS

    Newspaper Staff Petition for Unpaid Wages, Pensions

    Daqing Daily reporters and editors say they’re defending their rights and waiting for justice.
    Jul 04, 2018#media#labor

    For 58 years, staff at the Daqing Daily in northeastern China reported on their community. Now, the reporters have become the news, as dozens of employees petition for unpaid wages and pensions.

    The employees voiced their grievances on Friday in front of the newspaper’s headquarters in Daqing, a prefecture-level city in Heilongjiang province, after finding that their employer had failed to pay into their state-mandated pension and medical insurance funds since 2015.

    A financial reporter at the newspaper, who spoke to Sixth Tone under the condition of anonymity, said several employees were also being underpaid: Through 2017, he had only received half of his 5,000-yuan ($750) monthly salary. “We have been negotiating with the administrators for a long time, but the problem has not been resolved,” he said on Wednesday.

    The reporter said that on Friday, some of the petitioners had met with municipal officials but were told to wait “a little longer.” The Party publicity department that oversees the newspaper did not respond to Sixth Tone’s request for comment by the time of publication, and calls to the newspaper’s office went unanswered.

    First published in 1960, the Daqing Daily is a major Party publication in the city that claims to have a daily circulation of around 300,000 copies. But according to the reporter, the newspaper has been in significant debt for years due to bad investments and ineffective responses to the transformation of the media industry.

    “Although the [media] group is in a difficult financial situation, we reporters and editors are working hard to promote positive coverage that will contribute to the city’s development,” wrote newspaper employees in a petition letter dated June 28. “We have a sense of responsibility and ideals, but these alone cannot support our families.”

    The reporter who spoke to Sixth Tone was one of 73 employees who signed the petition letter, though he did not attend Friday’s protest. He said there were 96 people in a social media group discussing issues related to the petition. The newspaper has around 120 reporters and editors in total.

    The plight of the Daqing Daily highlights the dilemma many traditional media outlets face with the advent of new media. While many Chinese news organizations receive state funding, they still must compete for clicks, circulation, and advertising in a highly competitive market dominated by online portals.

    In 2003, the then-media watchdog General Administration of Press and Publication launched a nationwide campaign to regulate the country’s newspapers, which led to a sharp decrease in the number of mastheads. The same campaign also encouraged the industry to be more market-oriented — though in the past the press was managed in the same way as other state-owned institutions.

    But efforts to commercialize traditional media have not stopped readers from giving up on print. The average time a person spent reading print newspapers in China decreased from 25 minutes in 2012 to 17 minutes in 2016, according to media analysis firm CTR Market Research. In 2015, the All-China Journalists Association reported a 10.3 percent decrease in newspaper revenue from the previous year.

    “The newspaper did not prepare for new media trends, relying only on its various investments,” said the Daqing Daily reporter, referring to the media company’s investments in tourism and real estate. “Although the newspaper set up an online news portal, it was very local and had little influence.”

    It’s unclear whether the withheld salaries and pension payments at the Daqing Daily were related to the newspaper’s financial troubles, as the reporter claimed. But staff were forced to act after the province’s Human Resources and Social Security Department announced that overdue pensions could not be paid after April 2019.

    On June 29, Daqing Daily employees left their computers to stand in front of the office, holding banners high. One read: “In the past, we spoke up for the weak; today, we defend our own rights.”

    Editor: Bibek Bhandari.

    (Header image: Workers prepare newspapers for delivery in Zhengzhou, Henan province, Oct. 22, 2015. Chen Gengsheng/VCG)