Hong Kong unions, pupils fail to get active support for strikes against secureness law
21 June, 2020
Pro-democracy labour unions and a student group found in Hong Kong didn't garner more than enough support to carry strikes against looming national reliability legislation imposed by Beijing, in a good blow for the city's protest movement.
After a year of often-violent unrest, anti-government demonstrations have lost momentum due to higher threat of arrest, with recent rallies failing woefully to receive police approval because of coronavirus restrictions on large crowds.
A strike was intended to open a fresh arena of resistance, but organizers said only 8,943 union customers participated in a city-wide poll, falling brief of the 60,000 threshold to go ahead, even as 95 % of the votes were in favour.
Separately, the Secondary School Learners Action Platform said it could certainly not initiate a class boycott, because they fell short of a few of their targets for in-person votes.
Voting took place on Saturday and the results were announced about midnight.
The unions represented almost two dozen industries, including aviation, transport, construction, technology and tourism.
Most were formed previously year due to activists have spearheaded the largest force to unionise the laissez-faire, ultra-capitalist finance hub - where collective bargaining rights are not recognised - since Britain handed metropolis back to China in 1997.
China on Saturday announced information on the national reliability legislation, unveiling Beijing could have overarching powers more than it has the enforcement and signalling the deepest transformation to the city’s life-style since the handover.
The planned law has alarmed foreign governments as well as activists in Hong Kong, who were already concerned that Beijing was tightening its grip over the semi-autonomous city.
Officials found in Beijing and Hong Kong have got sought to reassure buyers that regulations will not rot the city's high degree autonomy, insisting it'll target only a minority of "troublemakers" who exactly pose a danger to national security.
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