Last week on the housing estate that I live and work on there was something going on. I couldn't quite work out what was happening and my attempts to ask what was happening led to more confusion for me.
Basically, the staff on the estate were all grouped together near the main entrance of the estate. Most visibly in attendance were the security guards in their uniform as well as some local police. I thought something serious might have happened but I wasn't sure what at all.
The next day, the staff were gathered downstairs from my school in the communal area near the estate office. New security guards were all over the estate. At this point I was thinking maybe there had been some criminal activity and the security guards were being let go because of this.
This morning, there were people still outside the estate office and I was still confused to what was going on.
I've just had my twice-weekly Chinese lesson off of the nephew of the guy who owns the school I work in as well as the estate I live on. I asked him what had happened and he basically explained to me that all the staff employed to clean the estate, maintain the public spaces and the security guards had been sacked due to a new company being hired to take care of all these areas. It was basically a cost cutting exercise via outsourcing.
I know of no evidence of there being any financial trouble to cause this cost cutting exercise (not that I would support it if there was a 'reason') and the owner of the estate is still building houses that seem to be selling well and the school I work in is brand new and gaining new students every week. The owner is just being a greedy cunt.
I'm not actually employed by the owner of the school, but work for a company that offers English teaching as a product for schools to buy (there are lots of reasons why this makes it easier for schools to do this that I don't need to go into). But I know that the school pays quite a bit to my company for our services (some of which includes my wage and I'm sure that would be higher than the native teachers). My contract runs out in July and I had already decided I will move on to another place in China when it runs out.
If I carry on working until the end of my contract am I a scab? There's no way I could offer any meaningful solidarity to the sacked workers whatever I do due language difficulties. If I quit my job then I would get fucked out of a fair bit of money and it could be harmful for renewing my visa for any new job I found because of me breaking contract. What's the best thing I can do in the situation?
I'm totally confused about what to do. I was about to go to sleep but came back to my workplace so I could post this on the net because I new I'd just be staying awake asking myself all these questions.
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TBH I don't really know enough about China and how things work there to give any meaningful advice on afraid. You should make sure you don't get deported or locked up or anything. You're not a scab, as you aren't replacing these workers who have been fired (and it doesn't seem like they are actually on strike anyway?)