Yan Qihang.
Ph.D., China Rural Research Institute, Central China Normal University).
First published Tencent News @ Xinxiangxiang) The peasants who were once tied to the land later became migrant workers who left their hometowns in the wave of urbanization; The group of migrant workers who once participated in urban construction later became older migrant workers who were dismissed from various industries; Where did all the older migrant workers who were dismissed go? How are they doing now?
During this year's winter vacation, the author conducted a short-term research in factory W, and in the past few days, the author met a considerable number of older migrant workers, experienced the working and living environment of older migrant workers, and also felt their luck and helplessness in the conversation with older migrant workers. Lucky because they are lucky compared to the older migrant workers who have no work to work and cannot enter the factory due to age, health, etc., and compared to the previous situation of running around and not having a guaranteed salary, they feel that "they are really living in heaven now." "The so-called helplessness is because this may have become the last foothold for their age, they don't know that there is relatively large pollution in such a factory, nor do they know that the work they are engaged in is the dirty work, tiring work, and dangerous work that young people are unwilling to do, but "now I don't want to go to other places at this age, although the pollution here is greater, the work is tiring, and sometimes the boss who is dozens of years younger is scolded more, but at least we need to be here. You can still earn a high salary, so it doesn't matter if you get dirty and tired, or get scolded, as long as you can earn money. ”
1. Who are the older migrant workers?
Located in a small town in the author's hometown, which is full of large and small steel and coal processing plants, when you take a bus into this town, you always look at it from afar, and you always have the illusion that this town seems to be shrouded in a huge barrier, which is formed by the 24-hour uninterrupted industrial exhaust gas in the factory (the workers on the bus say it is water vapor). However, what I didn't expect was that in this "enchantment", there was not only large-scale industrial production, but also older migrant workers who were responsible for the most basic and lowest-end production of the industry.
Factory W, where the author works, is a medium-sized factory in the town, with 160 workers, including 40 migrant workers aged 50 and above, accounting for 25%. From the perspective of the gender structure of older migrant workers, there are far more male migrant workers over 50 years old than women, accounting for 80% of the older migrant workers. Judging from the work experience of older workers, a considerable number of older workers have been working outside the factory before entering the factory, most of them on construction sites, but the lack of wages on construction sites is one thing, "The annual wage bargaining is exhausting. The main thing is that "I used to have at least a job to do, but now that I'm older, the construction site doesn't want us old people anymore." A very small number of them have been engaged in agricultural labor for a long time before entering the factory, and have no work experience, but "at this age, it costs more for children to go to school and start a family, and the income from farming is limited, so they can earn more when they come out." From the perspective of the family situation of older workers, older migrant workers are highly bound to their children, and when they talk about their family status, they basically talk about the current situation of children's employment and marriage and childbirth. There are two main types of family conditions for older workers who come to work in factories: those whose children are still in school, and those whose children work but have not yet married and had children. According to them, "we have not yet reached retirement age, when will our children get married and have children, and when will it be time to retire." Of course, there are a very small number of children who have married and had children, but I feel that it is the idle labor force at home that "has a place to want, and it is some to earn some." "The logic of life dominates the career choices of older migrant workers, prompting a considerable number of older migrant workers to go to the forefront of industrial production with joy and sorrow after leaving the construction site, filling the gap of basic labor in industrial production.
2. What are older migrant workers doing?
1.Older migrant workers who have gone to the forefront of industrial production.
Older migrant workers account for 25% of the total number of workers in the factory, and it is precisely these 25% that are responsible for the most basic 25% of industrial production. According to the workers, "about 25 percent of all the jobs in the factory are in poor conditions, unskilled and undesirable for young people." This makes me realize that these older migrant workers may not only be the last basic labor force in rural agricultural production, but they may also be the last low-cost basic labor force to support industrial production.
The production line of the author's enterprise includes a purification workshop and a carbonization workshop, and the purification workshop mainly includes instrument workers, oil pumping workers and mechanics, most of these workers are people with a certain degree of education, and their age is about 35. The carbonization workshop is mainly responsible for first-line production, including the carbonization workshop crusher (responsible for the operation of the raw coal crusher equipment), the raw coal feeder of the carbonization workshop (responsible for the operation of the raw coal equipment), the coking worker of the carbonization workshop (responsible for the operation of the coking equipment), and the loading worker of the carbonization workshop (responsible for the loading of the finished product of blue charcoal). Compared with the purification workshop, all positions in the carbonization workshop have large pollution, toxic gas, noise and other pollution, poor working environment and high physical labor intensity. The older migrant workers in the factory are mainly assigned to the carbonization workshop. The carbonization workshop belongs to the first-line production workshop of blue charcoal (made of refined coal, which is a new type of carbon material, which can replace coke and is widely used in chemical, smelting, gas and other industries). There are nearly 100 people in total, and 1 2 are older migrant workers. Although there are a considerable number of young workers under the age of 50, compared with older migrant workers, young workers in the carbonization workshop are often able to stick to the post very few, in the past three years, only one young worker resigned after two and a half years of persistence, which is the only one among many young workers who insisted on the longest, and most young people, insisted on resigning after less than five months. Therefore, older migrant workers have become the main force in the front-line production of the factory.
2.Older migrant workers who fill the gap in basic labor in industrial production.
The entry of older migrant workers into the factory has undoubtedly solved the problem of insufficient labor force in the basic production of the factory to a certain extent. Carbonization workshop is the basic production workshop of blue charcoal production, from raw coal crushing to the finished product of blue charcoal is completed in the carbonization workshop, although most of the production processes in the factory are completed by machines, but according to workers, "some work can not be done by machines, such as equipment operation, open material opening, production waste cleaning, etc., these most basic work must be completed by people." "Older migrant workers are very important for factory production, if there is a labor gap in these positions where older migrant workers are located, first, it will increase the workload of other workers, resulting in one person being responsible for three or five positions; Second, it will increase the cost of factories, and factories need to attract young people with higher wages and benefits. The third will affect the production of the entire production line, such as the gap in raw coal feeding, the subsequent production and refining of gas, tar and other will not be completed, although it can be completed through personnel transfer and remote control, but it has a considerable degree of disadvantages, and older migrant workers are an important part of efficient production at a lower cost.
3. Why are older migrant workers?
1) Why are older migrant workers willing to stay?
1.Marginalized people in the labor market.
If we divide it according to age, we can divide the labor force into young labor, middle-aged labor force and older labor force, the older labor force is undoubtedly the marginal labor force in all labor force, with the construction and other industries to limit the age of employment, older migrant workers gradually do not have an advantage in the labor market. For older migrant workers, employment opportunities are precious, and a well-paid employment opportunity is even harder. It is not so much a voluntary choice of older workers as it is the result of the fact that entering a relatively poor working environment and a place with high work intensity is the result of older workers having no choice. The unfriendly employment environment encourages older migrant workers to either gather in the high-polluting and high-risk front-line production, or to the low-income tertiary service industry, or to return to the primary industry with limited income. A worker in my factory said, "Sooner or later, we will be fired, and if we do, we will not be able to go anywhere else, so we will either go home and find a security guard, or we will go back to replant our family's land." "In fact, older migrant workers on the margins of the labor market are not sure about their tomorrow, the only thing they know for sure is whether they have to move on.
2.It's all about living.
Most of the reasons why older migrant workers choose to work in factories with high pollution and certain dangers after being cleared from industries with age restrictions such as construction are due to the pressure of life. Such factories still have employment opportunities for older migrant workers, who enter the factory as regular employees in the form of three-year contract workers, and have relatively high and stable incomes. In the factory, the average salary of older migrant workers can be about 6,000 yuan per month, and even 7,000-10,000 yuan on holidays, and can be paid on time at a fixed time every month. One worker said, "Our children are now in the time of using money, where the salary is high, and we are not afraid of arrears, so that as long as the children need it, they can send money to the children at any time." "Many workers said that they used to work outside and worked tirelessly, and they may not be able to get the money for a year, but now they can at least have savings, and they spend less, and they are in charge of food and housing, so they are basically stored in the card. Only a very small number of children of elderly migrant workers are married and have children, and their lives are relatively comfortable and there is no economic pressure, but they feel that they belong to the idle labor force at home, and they can earn a little while they still have the ability to work.
(2) Why do factories need older migrant workers?
1.There is a gap in the demand for front-line production labor.
The shortage of young labor willing to engage in front-line basic production is the main reason for factories to employ older migrant workers. The fate of older migrant workers is closely related to the career choices of young workers, and it can even be said that the career choices of young people determine to some extent the stay of older migrant workers in factories, and also determine the attitude of factory owners towards older workers. Although the factory has a great demand for young people and has better treatment than older migrant workers (older migrant workers have no provident fund and almost no chance of promotion), due to the difficult environment of front-line production, based on physical health and individual future development, these benefits do not constitute a condition for young people to stay. When factories recruit a group of young workers, older workers often have a strong employment crisis, factories will find various reasons to dismiss some older migrant workers, factory leaders, older workers and shift leaders will also use some informal methods such as verbal abuse, provocation, work pressure, etc., to force older migrant workers to resign. When there are many young people in factories who quit their jobs and there is a large shortage of front-line production labor, older workers will be treated as "workers are gods", and holiday gifts, family greetings, daily dinners, entertainment activities and other items will not be left behind. Sometimes the boss will threaten to fire him if he makes a mistake at work, but he will not approve it when he actually goes to make a resignation report.
2."Obedient" older migrant workers.
Speaking of older workers, the overall evaluation is "obedient", compared to young workers, older workers are relatively easy to manage, although young workers have strong learning ability, but young workers do not obey discipline, this kind of front-line production work is inherently limited to young people, if the leader criticizes again, scolding young people will immediately resign and find another job. However, older migrant workers are different, for older migrant workers, such job opportunities are not easy to come by, and there is a risk of being fired at any time, so older migrant workers often work very seriously, can bear hardships and stand hard work, and the most important thing is to obey discipline. One worker said, "Sometimes if something goes wrong at work, the young leaders will scold and tell you to get out of the way, so the older workers listen quietly and dare not refute." One older worker wrote in his diary: "From time to time, the leaders scolded the older people, telling them to leave if they didn't want to do it, and there was no place to ask us when they went out anyway." Those older workers who have been scolded in order to make money, can only complain behind their backs, and then continue to work, no way, people of our age are really not easy to find a job, unlike young people who are young, easy to find a job, even if they make mistakes, the leader does not scold much, just scold the older migrant workers, in fact, people in their fifties are the most worried and hard-working people in the factory. ”
Now the factory has implemented an assessment system, the wages of workers and daily study, work conditions, etc., this kind of fine management of the management of older migrant workers is particularly significant, a said "now do everything must be careful, careless will be assessed and deducted points, once the deduction of points is fined, heavy is fired, we are very careful." ”
4. How are older migrant workers doing?
From the perspective of wages and benefits, the older migrant workers in the small town factories have good treatment, their wages are relatively high, and the welfare benefits are relatively good. For example, in factory W, in addition to general wages and five insurances, workers will also have 1-2 physical examinations per year, and there will also be gifts or shopping cards on holidays. Judging from these conditions, the older migrant workers here seem to be the lucky ones in the context of the removal of the elderly migrant workers, but in fact this is not the case. In the exchange, these older migrant workers revealed their helplessness.
1.A work environment where there are hidden dangers.
As I mentioned above, older workers are often in positions with high pollution and high risk, and all workers know that working in this environment for a long time will inevitably cause some degree of physical harm, and because of this, young people often do not persist in this environment for a long time, and only those older migrant workers who have a burden of living and have been dismissed will choose to settle here. This kind of production and processing plant is required to be equipped with complete sets of equipment such as cleaning and anti-pollution, and these equipment are only operating daily under the strict supervision of the state this year, and before that, these equipment will only be operated when the leader inspects. Even if the cleaning and anti-pollution equipment is now in daily operation, the daily safety supervision is also strict, but on the one hand, the low safety awareness of individual workers makes the production workshop still have potential safety hazards, and on the other hand, the unprofessional and inadequate work of cleaning and pollution prevention also seriously affects the health of older migrant workers.
2.There is no way to fight and nothing to fight.
Older migrant workers are absolutely disadvantaged in defending their rights. On the one hand, it is because older migrant workers often choose to remain silent and not confrontational out of the need to maintain their work. On the other hand, because older migrant workers often have weak legal awareness and little understanding of how to protect their rights, when there is an infringement incident, most of them choose to remain silent and choose to "accept their fate". Vacation is the normal right and right of workers, and the factory also has a regular leave system, but it is understood that it is quite difficult for older migrant workers to take leave, and a considerable number of older migrant workers cannot pass the approval of leave, and a considerable number of them receive the company's dismissal notice during the vacation. This also makes some older migrant workers afraid to take vacations easily. In addition, the rights and interests of older workers in overtime pay cannot be guaranteed, but in the face of these situations, older workers often choose to remain silent because they "don't want to lose this job for a few hundred dollars." Even if you go to a lawsuit, if your arms can't twist your thighs, then you simply don't fight for it. "Migrant workers are at a disadvantage in defending their rights, and older migrant workers are even more vulnerable among the disadvantaged.
3."We're all lucky to be alive".
It was also during this short survey that I first heard the term "death quota". Of course, it does not mean that a factory must die several people every year, but according to the scale and nature of the factory's production, the number of deaths in a fixed factory must not exceed a certain number, and once this number is exceeded, the factory must be closed for rectification. In my exchange with other workers, one worker interjected, "Doing our kind of work, the risks are inevitable, it depends on who encounters them and when they encounter them." ”
Perhaps every older migrant worker lives with their heads tied to their belts, they are not afraid of risks, nor are they unable to calculate rationally, but reality gives them too few opportunities, and life puts too much pressure on them - all for life.