Macau police have launched an investigation into the casino industry’s fledgling labor movement, targeting four activists who say they have been questioned and could face civil disobedience charges.
The threat of a strike against SJM by croupiers and other front-line staff during the popular Golden Week holiday may have prompted the probe, which has the earmarks of a crackdown aimed at preventing any disruption during the busy Golden Week holiday, which commences October 1, China’s National Day, and runs to October 6.
Cloee Chao, a floor supervisor at Wynn Macau, said she submitted to questioning after police phoned her parents looking for her. She told Bloomberg the interrogation was related to her alleged breach of a police cordon during an August 25 demonstration by workers outside SJM’s flagship, Grand Lisboa.
Chao has been active in the founding of two labor groups, Macau Gaming Industry Frontline Workers and Forefront of Macau Gaming. Fellow activists Ieong Man Teng, Lei Kuok Keong and Ung Kim Ip also have been questioned by police in connection with the August demonstration, according to reports by Bloomberg and the South China Morning Post. All have been informed they face a charge of “aggravated disobedience”.
“I feel intimidated,” said Chao, who denies she broke the law. “It’s a warning and a threat to me.”
Workers have taken to the streets on at least eight occasions this year, targeting Sands China, Galaxy Entertainment Group and SJM individually, and the industry collectively, with demands for pay raises and changes to working conditions and promotion policies. MGM China joined the list last week as the subject of a complaint Forefront of Macau Gaming made to the government’s Labor Affairs Bureau.
SJM has been targeted by three separate demonstrations and was hit late last month with a work slowdown and sickout at Grand Lisboa. It was the first job action ever taken against the company founded by casino tycoon Stanley Ho. Chao and the other labor leaders have warned they workers will strike the operator during Golden Week if meaningful negotiations with management are not forthcoming.
