Taiwan Today

Wang Ching-yi (王清義), 54, has been a cement worker for nineteen years. He is also a part-time subcontractor now based in Taipei county. Although his job involves hard physical labor, Wang finds there are rewards: The pay is decent, and he can feel a sense of accomplishment when a job is done well. In an interview with the Free China Review, Wang talked about his work.

FCR: How did you become a ce­ment worker?

Wang Ching-yi: I got into the pro­fession accidentally. I grew up in a farming family. When I was a kid, like most of my brothers and sisters, I didn't have a chance to go to school because we had to help raise chickens, plant vegetables, and do all sorts of housework. In my hometown in Ilan county, fishing was the big­gest industry. I was a coastal fisherman until I was thirty-five. That year, we wanted to build an extra room onto our house, but we couldn't afford to hire any­ one. I decided to give it a try myself. With a little luck and maybe some talent, I man­aged to build it. One of my neighbors, who was a cement subcontractor, saw my work and offered to hire me. I followed him to Hualien and have stayed in the business ever since.

FCR: What is your daily schedule? What is the pay like?

Wang: Frankly speaking, we're paid quite well compared to other types of construction workers or blue-collar em­ployees. A cement worker usually starts work at 8:00 a.m., gets off at 5:00 p.m., and usually doesn't have to work over­ time. The daily wage for a qualified ce­ment worker is NT$2,500 to NT$3,000 [US$100 to US$120], depending on the market. An ordinary worker can earn NT$50,000 to NT$60,000 [US$2,000 to US$2,400] a month, while a factory worker usually earns a little more than NT$20,000 [US$800]. There is a set wage, however, on public construction projects, such as bridges or highways. Currently, a local cement worker is paid NT$1,600 (US$64) per day for this kind of work. But on private projects there are no regulations covering wages, and the union doesn't get involved. This is a gen­eral agreement among cement workers.

For people who don't have the chance to get a good education, this is a very well paying occupation. Since our pay usually goes up with the land prices, it has been in­ creasing considerably—at least much faster than the inflation rate. When I started nine­ teen years ago, I got only two, three hundred NT dollars a day, or one-tenth of what a cement worker can make now.

The subcontractors, who are respon­sible for hiring workers and buying raw materials, are paid according to their con­ tracts. As a matter of fact, the subcontrac­tors are more often the ones that work overtime. They try to shorten the number of days on a construction project so they can increase their profit. In my experi­ence, the workers have to put in overtime more often on big projects. Also, while the pay for workers has risen, prices for raw materials haven't increased much. Take cement, for example. It's a govern­ment policy to maintain a steady cement price while the national construction proj­ects are under way, so the price hasn't changed much since I entered the profes­sion. And steel bars are even cheaper than before since most contractors now import them at just half the local price. So profits for subcontractors are not bad.

The problem is, many construction workers don't know how to spend their money, and they don't understand the importance of saving. Many of them spend their money the same night they get paid on gambling or drinking. I always tell these people to save some money for their family and their own future, but it seems they're not interested in my advice.

FCR: What about insurance and workers' safety? What role does the union play?

Wang: On big construction jobs, the construction company is responsible for safety and for making sure that each worker is covered by insurance. On small jobs done by subcontractors like myself, workers are responsible for their own safety—they have to watch their own step. If an accident happens, the medical costs can be covered by the government labor insurance scheme. Generally, the risks of work-related injury are lower on smaller construction projects. The work­ers have to be very careful about their attendance, because they are paid according to the number of days they actually work.

There is a union for each construc­tion field; we cement workers have our own union. Currently, the union spends most of its time providing information on safety and government regulations. Some­ times it conducts surveys on our wages. But as far as I can tell, not too many people keep close contact with the union since most of us are too busy working.

FCR: Is there a shortage of local cement workers? What is your experi­ence with foreign workers?

Wang: There is certainly a shortage of local manpower for this job, or there wouldn't be so many foreign workers. Local cement workers don't encourage their children to get into the same line of work because they know it's a hard job. Also, they don't want to take on any ap­prentices. It takes money and time, usu­ally eighteen to twenty-four months, to train a qualified cement worker—and they usually leave for more money before they've learned enough. Also, fewer and fewer young people are interested in ce­ment work, partly because they know the job involves heavy physical labor, and partly because they don't know anything about the work.

Right now, many cement workers are about my age. The youngest are in their late thirties. To improve the situation, I think the government should start with junior high students. They should be given a chance to see what cement work is like, just as they have the chance to expe­rience other skills. Maybe some of these students will be interested and we won't need so many foreign workers.

Because of the market demand and the shortage of local manpower, the number of foreign construction workers has been increasing rapidly. I haven't had a chance to work with them yet, but I've noticed that most of them are new to the business and their skills aren't as well de­veloped as ours. Except for very few who have been in Taiwan a long time, they can only do work that involves mostly physical labor. The jobs that re­quire more skill, such as cementing walls or putting in tiles, are still done by local cement workers.

FCR: What are the most impor­tant and difficult skills necessary to become a good cement worker? What are the influences of new construction techniques?

Wang: A lot of different skills are needed in this profession, but I don't think any of them are difficult. The golden rule "practice makes perfect" also applies to cement work. But there is one aspect in which practice won't help much: A ce­ment worker has to be strong enough to carry cement; otherwise, extra workers have to be hired, and that will certainly increase costs.

The people who pay expect us to get the job done nice and fast. So in this busi­ness, hard work and a sense of responsi­bility are the two most important things that bring a good reputation, which also means more business.

There are new construction machines and techniques, but most of them don't have much influence on cement work. The main reason is that these machines break down easily. I've seen it several times—a dozen cement workers can't work because they have to spend hours trying to fix a spreading machine [a ma­chine that spreads mixed cement onto a brick wall or floor, where it is then smoothed by cement workers]. Anyway, based on my experience, some machines aren't helping but only delaying our job.

FCR: What are the most pleasant and unpleasant aspects of your job? How do you spend your leisure time, and do you have any plans for retirement?

Wang: There are two very happy moments in cement work. One of them is the same as in most other professions: seeing a job well done so that you can feel a sense of achievement. The other thing that makes us happy is good weather, es­pecially when working outdoors. It's ob­vious what a little rain can do to cement that hasn't dried yet. The humidity can also be a problem. Generally, I'm always in a good mood when I'm working. Bad weather is probably the only thing that can make my job unpleasant

I spend most of my free time resting or watching TV. Sometimes I take my son out to fly kites. I don't know how long I'll be able to work, but I will as long as I can. Some people suggest maybe I can run a small drugstore when I retire, but I think it's not possible. All I know is cement work. I don't think I will survive another profession. So I'll probably just stay home and watch TV, spend some time in the park, or have tea at one of those teahouses for older people.