So many workers are paid intermittently, if at all . It's not unusual for workers to go months without receiving their wages . Further, in the process of privatization, many workers are forced to give up their life savings to buy shares in their company . This gives them ownership, formally, but no real power, which continues to rest in the hands of the bureaucrats . The only difference is that now the workers' savings and pension funds are wiped out .
Workers protest .
Workers in China are not just lying down and accepting these attacks on their livelihood . Street protests have broken out in a number of locations . Last fall there were news reports of workers' demonstrations in the western province of Sichuan . In December there was news of workers protesting in the central city of Hufei and also the eastern province of Jiangsu . In early January, in the central industrial city of Wuhan, workers stopped traffic all day in a protest against mass layoffs .