SOCIETY, Report: Load 16 Tons and What Do You Get? Not Much More Than Pain and Deeper In Debt

By Zhu Chaoli

All together there are 34 stevedores working in Dongxin Fruit Market; they come from all parts of China, some from Henan, some from Anhui, some from Jiangxi, some from Yunnan, and points further. Their work, in many people's eyes, is of no importance: just loading and unloading goods. Some would even say that since stevedores are only responsible for loading and unloading goods, a market could work as well without them if only the stall owners and their workers did the job that stevedores do.

This, however, is never true. Without stevedores, the whole market would be paralyzed: trucks full of cargo stuck everywhere; vans waiting to come in blocking up the whole market; and the goods that are not well-stacked fall apart making a real mess. So, they are important to the market. What then is the life of stevedores?

Their work is hard.

Each day, 20 to 30 trucks of goods arrive (15-25 tons of goods per truck), so they barely have unoccupied time. To keep the market in order as well as ensuring their rest, they are divided into two groups; 17 in each and each group works every other day. Every day, one group works around the clock. Sometimes they can have a little nap among the small intervals but they must always be within call. The group that is resting does not always enjoy their rest. Often they will be called to work extra when the market is short of hands.

Lacking sleep and doing hard labor, they are often in great weariness. But because they are paid according to the amount of work they do, though weary and tired, stevedores always wish for more vans full of cargo to come so they can earn more money.

Each of them gets 8 Yuan when the group loads a ton of cargo, and earns roughly 1,300 to 1,400 Yuan a month. "The amount is bigger in June and December, often as much as 1,700 Yuan, but this is not the amount we actually get," Mao Jingchang, a stevedore, said. "The market officials take 13% of it as supervision fees. Considering fees for water, electricity, food, and other miscellaneous expenses, there is only 500 to 600 Yuan left," Mr. Mao explained.

All of the stevedores complained of the high supervision fee. "When we get our salary, 13% has been cut off, with no consent of us. It is even higher than the average amount of the factories," Zhou Changqing, who is from Henan, spoke angrily of the fee. "The market is not a place to work for long. They take so high a portion of our income, including even our insurance, which they should be taking care of according to the National Labor Law," Mr. Zhou said.

However, when trying to get information from the market officials, I got a completely different version of the supervision fee. The general manager, Mr. Qian, said as much while he was refusing to be interviewed: "There is no situation here. What's the point of interviewing those stevedores?"

The deputy manager, Mr. Chai said: "The market only charges the stevedores water and electricity fees. There is no such thing as a supervision fee. As the market has been open for only five years, our regulation of the stevedores is incomplete." When asked for the records of such fees, Mr. Chai said they had been lost.

Daily life: another kind of weariness

You'd be wrong if you say the market gives nothing to the stevedores; it does provide accommodation. 34 of them live in three small storehouses in the southeast, northeast, and southwest corners of the market. More than 10 people live together with no windows or intake-vents; they have to keep the door open because of the foul odor throughout the year.

In the winter when the temperature is often below zero, they tack a board on the right side of the bed to prevent the wind from blowing in, spread a mattress quilt--not able to afford a thick one, they can only use a flimsy one--and cover them selves with another quilt when sleeping. As they work a 24-hour shift, sleep becomes the only thing they want to do on the rest day.

For them an ideal arrangement is: finish their breakfast after work at 7 a.m., and then sleep until suppertime. However, they have to wash their clothes and deal with many other things on the rest days as most of them are alone and far away from their families. There is only one tap to wash clothes and one rope outside the storehouses to hang them, they have to take turns.

In their working time, they wear their working clothes: an army-green outerwear and a blue waistcoat with letters of "Dongxin Fruit."

"The green outerwear is bought in the small shop near the street as it bears wear and tear. As for the waistcoat, each of us has two. We are required to buy them, 40 Yuan each. It is expensive but not warm," an old stevedore sighed, shaking his head.

Good diets are needed by people who do labor work and this is another problem for them. "We don't eat in the dining room of the market any more. In the past, the food was cheap, but now the price is much higher yet the amount is less. Even though you spend 15 Yuan, you cannot eat your fill," Zhou Changqing said indignantly.

What makes them even angrier is the discrimination they suffer from other workers in the market. Every now and then, there will be some fruit missing, and since the stevedores live inside the market, "naturally" people throw suspicion upon them.

Also, if one of them is seen eating fruit or even holding one inside the market, the gatekeeper will immediately 'convict' him of stealing, and charge him a 50 Yuan fine each time. This can only be prevented if the stall owner who gave him the fruit comes up and claims to pay it for him.

Sweet, sweet home.

Home for the holidays is everyone's wish. Home is perhaps even sweeter to stevedores than it is to others, but whether they can go home remains a question. To keep running, the fruit market needs at least 8 stevedores at all times (even for Spring Festival). Often it is decided by the will of the stevedores. But if few of them are willing, they have to draw lots.

Constantly having to be outside; who wouldn't miss home? Who wouldn't want to be with their family during holidays? However, during holidays, train tickets are hard to buy, and they cost more. On the other side, the pay for their work during major holidays is often higher. "Should I go home or save the money?" It is a question all of them consider.

Everyone has his own special feeling and particular worries about home and family. Mao Jingchang, who comes from Pujiang, a small town in Zhejiang Province, goes home every month. "Only my mother and wife are at home. They cannot do laboring work." Mr. Mao told me that he had two children also working, one in Guangzhou, and one in Harbin, who seldom went home. When asked whether the sons have sent money home, he said, "We have been very happy that they have their own life. I don't expect them to do anything more." His tone is helpless and full of loneliness.

He Chun, who is in his late 50s, is deeply worried about his son who is in Junior School grade 3: "He is not hard working in his studies, and often indulges himself with video games. I don't know what to do. Now that knowledge is more and more important, I expect him to be wise enough to continue studying and then find a better job in the future than I have."

Of all the stevedores working in the market, Cai Guoqing may be the most fortunate. His whole family moved to Hangzhou, living in a room they rent outside the market. His wife works in a garment factory. Though he is from the remote countryside of Jiangxi, he is not conservative and is very considerate of his wife. He was washing clothes when I interviewed him. "My wife is very tired already, she sometimes has to work 12 hours continuously. Too tired," Mr. Cai said.

This is their life, stevedores. Like everyone, they have their difficulties, pains, hopes and dreams. What makes the difference between them and most of us is the tiredness that they can hardly express, and the discrimination and distrust society imposes upon them.