Fatal flaws in Chinese gem units

From age 18 to 26, Feng toiled without so much as a mask, trying to turn himself from an impoverished peasant into a prosperous city worker. He married a fellow employee, had two sons. ‘‘We had a beautiful dream,’’ Feng said. ‘‘To make some money, go home and start a small business.’’

Today, Feng hopes to live long enough to collect money from the factory where he developed silicosis, an incurable ailment known as ‘‘dust lung’’ that kills more than 24,000 Chinese workers each year in professions such as mining, quarrying, construction and shipbuilding. Most slowly suffocate, without protest.

But not Feng. The factory where Feng worked was one of more than 2,000 small and medium such operations near the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. The area processes about 50,000 tons of semiprecious-stone jewelry a year, 70 per cent of the world’s total, according to the state-run People’s Daily newspaper. When Feng started in the early 1990s, his factory, called Gaoya, had about 50 employees. The crowded workshop had no ventilation system. ‘‘We asked for masks but they said no,’’ Feng said.

Despite the harsh conditions, Feng stayed because there were no jobs in his rural village. In the 1990s, Feng’s chest started to hurt. He felt short of breath and was coughing. Other workers had similar symptoms. The management organised a physical check-up for the employees. Feng and others were told they had tuberculosis. The ailment was contagious, but curable. The sick workers were given $250, told to go home, rest half a year, and when they returned, a less strenuous job would be waiting. ‘‘When I came back, he had packed up the factory,’’ Feng said.

Furious, he tried in 2002 to apply for worker’s compensation from the Labour Dispute Arbitration Committee in Haifeng. His factory had moved there from nearby Huizhou, and changed its name from Gaoya to Gaoyi. He was turned down on the grounds that the factory where he had worked was in Huizhou. Next, he tried to sue. But two courts rejected his case. He borrowed money from friends and relatives for legal fees and living expenses. He’s nearly $10,000 in debt.

Just when things were looking hopeless, a group called the China Labor Bulletin offered to help. They put Feng up in an apartment in Shenzhen and helped restart his case. ‘‘I didn’t believe there could be a group out there willing to stand up for us and fight for our rights,’’ Feng said later. When an international jewellery convention met in Hong Kong in June, Feng and other workers showed up carrying X-rays of their blackened lungs. In a hoarse voice, Feng shouted his boss’ name through a microphone and cried, ‘‘No blood money!’’

The group relaunched his claim against Gaoya through an arbitration committee in Huidong County. In May, the committee ruled in favor of Feng. The factory was ordered to pay him $3,800 for medical expenses, plus $100 a month as long as he lives. It was a hollow victory. Staphany Wong, the Labor Bulletin case worker assisting Feng, said, ‘‘The original factory no longer exists, so there is nobody there to pay anything to Feng,’’ she said. The labour group is trying to appeal. They have been staging more protests in Hong Kong, and trying to make Western firms aware of the factory conditions. —LATWP