HK metal workers steel themselves for long strike

HONG KONG, Aug 20 (Reuters) A rare strike by hundreds of bar-bending Hong Kong construction workers has grounded work at construction sites for the last two weeks, flustered property tycoons and highlighted the struggle of labourers in the capitalist hub.

While previous strikes have tended to peter out in the face of Hong Kong's laissez-faire government, corporate muscle and elastic labour markets -- this one has maintained its potency, partly because of the specialist skills and limited numbers of workers involved.

''It's the largest and longest (strike) since the handover,'' said unionist legislator Lee Cheuk-yan, referring to Hong Kong's reversion from British to Chinese rule in 1997.

Gathered outside a construction site in an old, scruffy district in east Kowloon -- far from Hong Kong's luxury malls and corporate skyscrapers -- several hundred metal workers vowed to keep fighting for higher wages and shorter working hours in a mass sit-in protest begun a fortnight ago.

''Over the past 10 years -- my wages have almost halved to HK0 (76 dollars) a day,'' said Ho Man-wong, 53, a bar-bender for 30 years. ''We must stand firm with our protest.'' Lee, whose union helped organise a rally yesterday which drew 1,500 people, said much more needed to be done to protect the rights of low-income labourers given a growing wealth gap and inherent poverty festering beneath the city's affluent image.

''It very much reflects that workers in these 10 years have been heavily exploited ... there is this anger that they're not able to share in the prosperity of society,'' Lee added.

Experts in bar-bending -- the task of shaping and laying the ''metal-skeletons'' of new buildings including their foundations -- the workers say they've managed to ground over 20 building projects, with one property tycoon conceding the strikes were having a serious effect.

''The work progress at construction sites of private developers and government projects is all affected,'' the deputy Chairman of Cheung Kong Holdings, Victor Li, was quoted as saying by the South China Morning Post newspaper.

''It has a great impact on Hong Kong.'' But Ho, the metal worker, said it was the labourers who had suffered the most.

''The large corporations have monopolised many sectors, so most small citizens in Hong Kong have been squeezed,'' he said.

Reuters NY GC1434