HK unions, students fail to get support for strikes against law
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox
A volunteer emptying a ballot box in Hong Kong last Saturday, following a vote organised by a selection of pro-democracy unions to ask members if they would participate in a citywide strike and if they supported China's plans to impose a new national security law in Hong Kong.
PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Follow topic:
HONG KONG • Pro-democracy labour unions and a student group in Hong Kong have failed to garner enough support to hold strikes against looming national security legislation imposed by Beijing, in a blow for the Chinese-ruled city's protest movement.
After a year of often violent unrest, anti-government demonstrations have lost momentum due to a higher risk of arrest, with recent rallies failing to receive police approval owing to coronavirus restrictions on large crowds.
A strike was intended to open a new arena of resistance, but organisers said only 8,943 union members participated in a citywide poll, falling far short of the 60,000 threshold to go ahead, even as 95 per cent of the votes were in favour.
Separately, the Secondary School Students Action Platform said it would not initiate a class boycott, as it also fell short of some of their targets for in-person votes.
Voting took place last Saturday and the results were announced around midnight.
The unions represented almost two dozen industries, including aviation, transport, construction, technology and tourism.
Most were formed in the past year as pro-democracy activists have spearheaded the biggest push to unionise the laissez-faire, ultra-capitalist finance hub - where collective bargaining rights are not recognised - since Britain handed the city back to China in 1997.
China last Saturday announced details of the national security legislation, unveiling measures giving Beijing overarching powers over its enforcement and signalling the deepest change to the city's way of life since the handover.
The planned law has alarmed foreign governments as well as democracy activists in Hong Kong, who were already concerned that Beijing was tightening its grip over the semi-autonomous city.
Officials in Beijing and Hong Kong have sought to reassure investors that the law will not erode the city's high degree of autonomy, insisting it will target only a minority of "troublemakers" who pose a threat to national security.
REUTERS
