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Thread: Staking lives because of poverty

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[quote=LEONARDO,259285]As to our coal miners, we are fully aware that what we are doing is one of the most difficult, dirty and dangerous jobs in the world. However, we have no choice because of poverty. Most of mining workers like me, are from rural areas. We neither receive a good education, nor have other skills to make a living. Coal mining can help us make more money than planting crops. Through mining in the bottom of mine, we can make twice as much as our counterparts who operate on top of the mines, ie.RMB 1000-1500 a month.

The working condition is very poor. Many mines where I have worked operate on minimum facilities i.e no breather, minimum machinery and poor ventilation. In some private small coal mines, the working conditions are even worse. Despite of the poor working conditions, many miners including me fear to lose this job. I remember clearly when I seek my first job in a private coal mine, the foreman said: “Take it or leave it. The only thing that China doesn't have is a shortage of people." Of course, the mine prefers employing our temporary migrating farmers, because they do not have to sign a formal contract and provide other welfare and pension.

It is poverty that put coal miners in a vulnerable position. Poverty forced miners to work in the poor working condition. Due to the poor working condition, about 600,000 miners are suffer from pneumonia, a disease of the lungs caused by long-term continued inhalation of dust, and the figure increases by 70,000miners every year. Sometimes, we have to work even when we are seriously ill. It is very often that when we asked for sick leave, the foreman would say “OK, if you want to have sick leave, you will leave forever.”
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