Page 57 - Preservation for the Documentation of Chinese Christianity

Many people had commented on the effectiveness of this kind
of bilingual service and found it moving. There were about
540 people present, a slight drop on the previous year.

Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee

To help build a labour voice and to enable workers to have
power remain the basic aims of the Committee.

Our first priority is action-oriented labour education,
including literature, leadership training seminars, and classes
on labour law and organizing. In recent months, there has been
the addition of advanced courses on politics, economics,
sociology and psychology. They achieved full enrolment.

There was involvement to influence labour legislation.
Two notable attempts were the revision of the MTrade Union
Registration (Amendment) B i l l " and the "Labour Tribunal Bill".
Both actions started with workers forming study groups to
scrutinize the bills. Both met with a certain degree of
success. The worker’ role in the latter case was openly
s
recognized in the Legislative Council.
Another area of involvement is that of industrial disputes.
The most notable is the Blind Worker’ Strike. In this signi-
s
ficant event, the Committee helped by rallying some of the
biggest welfare agencies to the cause of the workers by
bringing them and student groups into a united front, and by
strategizing and arranging logistics with the strikers. The
workers won all their immediate demands.

A further event is the drive to have the Hong Kong Festival
Holiday made into a paid holiday for workers. This led to a
number of labour petitions and demonstrations. In terms of
its stated aim, the drive failed. But in terms of exposing
industrial workers on a large scale to the basic discriminating
nature of the power structure, it could claim some success.

Another city-wide drive is currently on, to ask the Governor
to appoint E l s i e Elliott to the Legislative Council to speak
for the working men and women who have hitherto no voice at all
in the law-making process. Enthusiastic support has come from
workers, unions, minibus drivers, hawkers and resettlement
residents. Results have yet to be announced.

Last year, we helped organize the Society for Community
Organization, an ecumenical body aiming at training grass-root
community workers.

Our present office-bearers are Dr. L. K. Ding (Chairman),
Rev. Francis Yip (Vice-Chairman), Rev. Man Kwok Wa i (Hon.
Secretary) and Dr. Paul Newman (Hon. Treasurer). Staff are
Mr. Raymond Fung, Rev. Hans Lutz, Mr. Philip Lam, Miss Jayne
Wong, and Mr. C. S. Lau. Mr. Bob Snow left us in August 1971,
having faithfully completed his two-year term.