Datong Coal Mining Group Company (formerly known as "Datong Mining Bureau") is a state-owned special
large-scale enterprise in China's coal industry, with an annual output of more than 30 million tons of raw coal, ranking first in the country. The company's total assets now amount to 22
billion yuan, with a workforce of 150,000, and it is one of the country's 512 key enterprises, as well as one of the country's 120 large-scale enterprise groups
pilot units.
The predecessor of Datong Coal Mining Group Company was Datong Mining Bureau, which was established on August 30, 1949 and managed the production of nearly ten mines in Datong
. At first, the annual coal production was only 82,000 tons, and the mines were mainly located in Kouquangou.
After the founding of New
China, Datong Mining Bureau has gained great development. 1973, China's self-designed and constructed
large-scale modernized mines Yungang mine was put into operation, and then Yanshanshan and Shitai mines were built one after another, and
Ma Zhiliang and Jinhua Gong mines were technologically upgraded. 1979, the production of 24.04 million tons of coal, realizing the
The production capacity of Datong Mining Bureau has increased from 1.5 million tons to 3.5 million tons.
Double by design capacity; 1985 coal production in the country for the first time exceeded 30 million tons, in 1993 the production of
38.02 million tons of coal, the highest annual output record of domestic coal enterprises. In recent years, in order to meet the needs of the coal market
market, the production capacity has stabilized at about 35 million tons.
In July 2000, the former Datong Mining Bureau was restructured to establish the Datong Coal Mining Group Limited Liability Company, with a registered capital of RMB 3,533.08 million yuan and a wholly state-owned company.
At the end of 2001, its assets reached 14.7 billion yuan, and the group has five holding
subsidiaries, including Datong Coal Industry Joint Stock Company, one wholly-owned engineering and construction subsidiary, as well as other
secondary units such as mechanic repair, chemical industry, cement, and coal gas. The annual sales revenue is 7 billion RMB. In more than 50 years of production and operation, Datong Mining Bureau has obtained
better economic and social benefits. 1.013 billion tons of coal were produced from 1949 to 2001***, and
12.565 billion yuan of profit and tax was paid, which is 2.62 times of the accumulated investment of the state.
On December 21, 2003, the former Datong Coal Mining Group Co., Ltd. was reorganized as the main body of the company, and
The Datong Coal Mining Group Co. was established in a formal
style with a total asset of 22 billion yuan and 150,000 employees as a mega coal enterprise. The asset reorganization, which was carried out under the auspices and promotion of the government, mainly took the former Datong Coal
Mining Group Co., Ltd. as the main body, and merged a number of smaller state-owned
coal mines in Ningwu Coalfield in nearby Shuozhou City, diversifying the main body of the investment, but all of them are state-owned capital. The new Tong Coal has 30 pairs of production mines, of which the
main ones are the ***15 large-scale coal mines with an annual output of more than 2 million tons in Kouquan Gou and Yungang Gou, and the new large-scale modern coal mines with an annual output of more than 10 million tons that are under construction.
The new Tong Coal has a total of 30 pairs of production mines. The development goal of the new Tong Coal is that by
2006, the coal production and sales volume will reach more than 100 million tons, and the annual sales revenue will reach 20 billion yuan; by 2010, the
production and sales volume will reach 150 million tons, and the first phase of the power plant will have an installed capacity of 5 million kilowatts, and the total sales revenue will reach
40 billion yuan, and the per capita income of the employees will reach more than 25,000 yuan per year. The ultimate goal is to make the new Tong coal become China's
biggest coal power enterprise and enter the ranks of the world's "top ten" coal enterprises. (Datong Daily News: bigger and stronger
Pillar industry, accelerate the pace of reform and development
II. The current situation of business operation
The current situation of Tong Coal Group's operation is briefly summarized as follows.
In the years after 1998, adversely affected by the downturn of the national coal market, Datong Mining
Bureau encountered greater difficulties in operation. The reasons are manifold: the domestic coal market was saturated and
oversupplied, and the coal export was also greatly reduced due to the financial crisis in Southeast Asia at that time, and the international competition was getting more and more fierce. The state is in the energy adjustment and economic macro-control needs, also on the coal industry investment has been sharply reduced.
In the past two years, with the recovery of the world economic situation and the growth of demand in the domestic market (last year's energy constraints,
Beijing once pulled the plug on electricity; early this year, the central government has raised the issue of overheating of the economy), the coal companies are also considered to be a temporary
temporarily passed through the most difficult period of time, the business situation has improved. According to Mr. Rong, now Tong Coal Group
is operating at maximum capacity.
On the reasons for the operating difficulties of coal enterprises, from the perspective of the national macroeconomic policy, Mr. Rong
mainly talked about one reason, which is the uneven distribution of industrial profits. As one of the most important
basic energy sources in China, coal can be said to be in the most upstream of the whole industrial chain. In order to protect the
profits of the downstream industry, the state regulates and intervenes in coal prices, artificially depressing the price of raw coal. The low
maze of coal prices is further aggravated by the high fragmentation and disorderly competition in the coal industry market. China's coal industry is
a decentralized industry, with no single company holding a significant market share, i.e., no single company can have a substantial impact on the development of
the industry as a whole. In the United States, industries with a market concentration of less than 40% are often
considered to be decentralized industries, while the market concentration of China's coal industry is less than 10%. According to statistics, at the end of 1998
, there were more than 50,000 coal enterprises of various types in the country, with an average of only 25,000 tons of coal produced by each enterprise
or so, and even the 111 key state-owned coal enterprises had an average sales of only 4.22 million tons of coal, with an average
market share of less than 0.4%. In contrast to the high degree of market fragmentation in the coal industry, coal's most direct and major
downstream industry, electricity, is a highly concentrated, even almost state-monopolized industry in China.
The highly decentralized coal industry has no competitive advantage over the highly concentrated power industry.
The phenomenon of coal companies competing against each other in a disorderly manner is very serious.
Datong's coal companies, in addition to the state-owned mega-company Tong Coal Group (Datong Mining Bureau), have a large
quantity of small, locally owned coal mines. At present, the production capacity and output
of the Tong Coal Group and all other local coal mines are basically equal, each accounting for half of Datong's coal industry. We have not yet had time to find out the nature of the current ownership of these small local coal mines, or how many of them are now fully privately owned, but there is no doubt that these small local coal mines generally suffer from more serious
safety hazards and accidents than the large state-owned Tong Coal Group, and have exacerbated uncontrolled competition in the coal industry, posing a disaster to state-owned enterprises. The state-owned enterprises caused
larger impact. Talking about the problem of small local coal mines is mainly a historical reason. Since the reform and development
of China, especially in the 1980s, the country was chronically energy-strapped, so the government encouraged the development of small local coal mines.
The barriers to entry in the industry were very low, and as long as you were willing to invest, you could mine. Now they have been developing for so
many years, and although there are problems of one kind or another, they can't all be shut down at once.
Datong's coal resources after decades of large-scale mining since the founding of the country, resource depletion
problems have also begun to emerge. April 17, 2004, Xinhua News Network, Shanxi Channel, published an article signed by Chen Zhong
Hua, the original Bixia, ""Success is also coal, failure is also coal,"" "Coal Datong in the doldrums of vigilance" in the text, such as
The first is the depletion of coal resources that Datong is currently facing: "Firstly, high-quality coal resources are on the verge of depletion,
Coal production is in short supply. With the construction of the energy base, the long-term high-intensity mining of coal makes Datong city coal
Coal resources are about to enter a period of depletion. Datong coal field covers a total area of 1827 square kilometers, with a total reserve of 37.6 billion tons,
which has been proved in the upper Jurassic coalfield geological total reserves of 6.8 billion tons, according to the end of 2001 Jurassic can be
mining reserves of less than 1.5 billion tons, according to the current mining speed can be mined for 10-15 years only, if coupled with the destruction of resources
and other factors, can only be mined for 6-8 years. Factors, can only be mined for 6-8 years, while the lower Carboniferous Permian coal resources preliminary exploration reserves of 30.8
billion tons, but did not carry out detailed geological surveys, coupled with deeper burial, complex geological conditions, mining technology
requires high, costing a huge amount of money, etc., without the state's policy and funding, local difficult to carry out large-scale open
Mining."
From this point of view, the problem of depletion of coal resources in Shanxi is not a very distant thing. Coal resources
Resources that face depletion in the near future, the industrial restructuring when early, save for a rainy day. For
Local governments, this involves the question of whether economic growth is sustainable; for enterprises, it is in the short
period involves the ability to resist market risks, in the long term involves the fundamental question of the survival of the enterprise.
The plight of Datong Mining Bureau in the past few years shows that the benefits of a single coal mining industry are greatly affected by market fluctuations
and its ability to withstand risks is very weak. So how do our government officials and business leaders actually
consider these issues? As we were not able to communicate with the top management of the Tongjia Group on this trip, it is not quite clear
exactly how they actually consider it. When asked about this issue, he also admitted that the Mining Bureau is facing the problem of coal resource
depletion, and said that there are a few large mines directly under the group has been declared bankrupt (this issue will be further discussed in the
face, the real reason for the bankruptcy of several large mines, I'm afraid that far more than resource depletion of this reason
can be explained). When it comes to industrial restructuring, his words also seem to reveal helplessness, saying that according to the words of their
old boss, it is "'coal-based, a variety of business', 'a variety of business, coal-based'; leaders
Said 'multiple operations', in fact, is still 'coal-based'." From the information made public in the media, the
solution of this
problem does not seem to be optimistic. There are major leaders of the Shanxi provincial government attended the new Tong coal reorganization
unveiling ceremony, put forward by the enterprise more specific long-term goal is still the pursuit of production-oriented, in addition to the development
development of power, other "extend the coal industry chain, improve the deep-processing products," and so on, seems to be some of the big
policy, has not yet been put into practice to the specific action above. The article on the Shanxi channel of Xinhua News Network mentioned earlier
seems to indicate the predicament of Datong.
2. Status of state-owned enterprise reform
Since the reform and opening up, and especially since the 1990s, state-owned enterprises have carried out a wide range of reform measures such as "separation of government and enterprises", "separation of enterprises
businesses", "reduction of staff and increase in efficiency", "restructuring", "reorganization" and other measures to reform their assets. The same coal
Group (Datong Mining Bureau), as a state-owned mega-enterprise, itself in the enterprise management system
What changes? According to what we have learned, compared to state-owned enterprises in other parts of the country, the reform of the Tong Coal Group
Group (Datong Mining Bureau) is still progressing very slowly, and there have not been any substantial
changes in many aspects.
For example, the issue of "enterprise-run society". The total number of employees in the same coal group is 150,000, plus the workers' family
belongings, **** there are about 600,000 people. The 15 mines directly under the Tong Coal Group are located in the two parts of Kouquan Gou and Yungang Gou,
each mine generally has its own residential area for workers, schools, hospitals, banks and other institutions, similar to
a township. Rong, chief of the board's secretariat, who received us, said the Tong Coal Group is burdened,
but reform has been slow, mainly because the government won't allow the separation (of enterprise and utility) and the local treasury doesn't have the money.
It is necessary to protect the basic life of workers and maintain social stability. On this issue, we excerpt the following from a previous conversation:
"The director of a mine: the overall reform is not strong and cannot be strong enough. As a result of a mine is a
subordinate unit of the same coal group, only the right to manage without the right to operate, does not have legal personality, "action to listen to the above instructions
wave", the way of reform to be subjected to the group's constraints, the autonomy of the margin is not great. Our mine registered personnel of more than 6100
more than 400 people in October 2003 streaming, and now retired about 3400 people, these
all have to be responsible for the enterprise, relying on the enterprise to feed. Total **** more than 1520 idle personnel are relying on out of coal to solve the problem of food!
Now is to be able to work as much as possible on the job, can be arranged as much as possible arrangements. (Because as soon as the change is going to be laid off, as soon as the layoff
will have to make a fuss.)
"As far as the whole group of companies is concerned, the reform is just a name change, there is no substantial reform; as far as
The mine is concerned, in the process of marketization, a lot of them are shifted from the original egalitarian potlatch to the market operation,
which is bound to cause some workers to oppose, and the staff's understanding is still more traditional and has not been transformed. At the same time
Staff living standards are lower, so the reform wants to change, but it is very difficult to change!
"The whole group of companies is almost (referring to the various coal mines under the group company). But from '01 onwards
In order to make the coal production increase, introduced incentives than the plan for each additional meal of coal, more than 30 dollars.
This created a gap between the old mines and the new mines, with the new mines overproducing by a large margin and having a smaller personnel burden! The life of the workers on the mine
is still more bitter!"
"A deputy director in charge of logistics of the Tong Coal Group: an enterprise like Tong Coal, the social burden
is very heavy. The same coal group nearly six hundred thousand employees family members, their lives all to enterprise burden, resulting in reform
pressure is very big. If this situation is not reformed, the enterprise can not afford. The efficiency of the coal industry is relatively low compared to
other industries. The historical legacy of nearly 50 years of pot rice and average main
ideology is difficult to reverse in a very short period of time, so Datong
coal mine reform is slow.
The 500,000 to 600,000 people in the Datong coal mine account for half of Datong, and the whole enterprise is a small society.
This
was a big whole, which piece to change, the people have to pay, would have earned less, the reform is undoubtedly
for them to add to the frost. In the absence of a mass base for reform, the masses can not stand,
inevitably triggered dissatisfaction with society. The reforms have gone through several stages, housing reforms have been carried out, reforms on water and
gas have to be carried out gradually, otherwise society will be destabilized. Only when the income of workers is raised can
reforms in other areas be carried out."
Then there are issues such as "downsizing" and "layoffs". According to Mr. Rong, the phenomenon of layoffs in Tong Coal Group is not
serious, and at present there are more than 6,000 laid-off workers in the whole bureau, which is still
a low percentage relative to the total number of 150,000 employees. Of course, this is the case after the coal industry initially came out of the downturn in the past two years, and the external survival environment of enterprises
improved. The first few years were relatively severe. Regarding the number of layoffs, official figures have
always deviated somewhat from the actual situation, because of a question of how to define the status of a "laid-off worker. The problem of hidden unemployment is also more serious here, according to what we learned from our interviews with ordinary workers.
Several veteran workers said the biggest problem now is that "young people don't have proper jobs". Of course there
is also a problem of perception here. According to our guess, the "serious jobs" that the old workers are talking about, even if they are not like the "iron rice bowl" jobs in state-owned enterprises before the reform and opening up of China, should at least be permanent and contracted jobs, and temporary
jobs probably don't count. Because temporary workers are always in danger of being dismissed, can only be considered a temporary job, not
can be considered a "serious job". There may also be a historical problem here. The term "laid off" was probably used primarily
for workers in state-owned enterprises in the past. In the past, they used to have a more permanent and regular job in the state-owned enterprises, but now they don't, so they have been "laid off". But with China's reforms today, the "iron
rice bowls" of the past have long since been abolished, and SOE workers are mainly contracted, or even temporary, laborers. In other words, for the new generation of young people who are now
of employment age, most of them will not face any "layoff" problem.
Because they have never been on the job in the first place, it doesn't matter if they are laid off.
The key to the problem, therefore, is the replacement of the status of workers in state-owned enterprises. Regular workers become contract workers, contract workers become temporary workers, and so on. Because we
have not been able to interview the top leaders of the Tong Coal Group on this trip, we don't know the macro
data on the proportion of contract and temporary workers in each mine, but we have interviewed several temporary workers in the course of the interviews, especially in the second mine, which is now nominally
declared bankrupt. Overall, layoffs in the Tong Coal Group are not serious at the moment; after all, the company is producing at full capacity (according to Chief Rong) in the
now decent coal market.
Regarding the asset reorganization of Tong Coal Group just recently, Mr. Rong believes that it is a more
wise decision of the government. The reorganization, mainly
if the former Datong Coal Mining Group Co., Ltd. as the main body, merged the nearby Shuozhou City, Ningwu coalfield
some smaller state-owned coal mines, the main body of investment diversification, but all for the state capital. Because
local small coal mines generally have outdated equipment and a low degree of mechanization, after the integration, some of Tong Coal Group's obsolete
equipment can be transferred to these small mines to help them expand their production capacity; and the phenomenon of disorderly competition in the market
may be eased, said the Rong section chief. But since it has just been reorganized, the long-term effects remain to be seen.
As for the income situation of the workers, Mr. Rong gave us a figure of "the average annual salary of the workers is
12,000 to 13,000 yuan, with more for the front-line workers. But in reality, according to our visits to ordinary workers,
the income is not so high. Over the past few days we have interviewed more than 20 master workers in total***, including retired old cadres,
old workers, as well as on-the-job workers, etc., which is still relatively comprehensive. According to our actual understanding of the situation,
Downhole workers, that is, the most difficult and dangerous first-line workers, the salary can get more than 1,000; more
More is the second-line workers, including ground workers, the income is about 800. The income of on-the-job workers is mainly
divided into two parts, one of which is the basic salary and the other is the income from over-mining. The management here is chaotic,
with big loopholes, which will be covered later when we talk about corruption. Pensions for cadres can reach about 1,000,
and those for ordinary workers range from 400 to 800. In previous years, when the coal market was in the doldrums, there were cases of unpaid wages,
but the past two years have been better, with pensions and workers' wages basically paid on time. Because the state
has implemented an annual salary system for leaders of state-owned enterprises, the income of leading cadres is still considerable. According to what we learned from ordinary workers
and some retired veteran cadres, the annual salary of the highest leading director is 600,000 yuan, and even the most
basic captains, such as the captain of a general mining team, earn 65,000 yuan a year (black income and other gray income involving corruption
are not included here). There are also other bonuses and subsidies, such as production safety awards,
as long as the death rate from coal mine accidents does not exceed the limit.
The gap between the incomes of the leaders and the workers is huge. When a retired cadre heard us say, "The average annual salary of an employee is 12,000 to 13,000 yuan (a figure provided by a section
chief)," he laughed and said, "Do you know how it was calculated? By averaging the $600,000
of the chief and the $800 of the average worker, that's the figure." It made sense when we thought about it, so maybe that
was how the number came out.
We didn't know much about worker housing, and we only went to two mines, Nine and Two.
Just a quick note on the staff housing areas we saw. There were a few blocks of flats at the Nine Mine, said to have been built in the early 1990s
but they now look a bit run down on the outside. There are also some workers living in
very low and shabby little houses built against the hills, like slums. There are all nine of the more productive mines, and a bit more at Mine 2, which has been declared
bankrupt. From the second mine gate into the road along the road a short distance, you can see from the left side of the road
two buildings in the gap in a hillside, in the half-slope of the mountain built a piece of slum-like low
small houses, like the desert abandoned grottoes, dilapidated castles. We asked an older woman who was passing by,
and learned that there are still some people living there. It is said that in the past, the central leadership to visit the mine, along the way to see this
some low small house, asked what it is for, the following replied that it is a chicken. This legend has its
other similar version, its authenticity can not be verified, but also enough to depict the image of these small houses
simple and dilapidated.
On the issue of health insurance, most of the workers interviewed said that it was nominally available, but in practice it was basically useless
. There is no reimbursement for minor ailments, and you have to pay for anything less than 300 yuan; and for major ailments, there is only a very small amount of reimbursement, a few percent
. And that's just for regular workers. Temporary workers get nothing.
Children's education expenses are also a big life stressor for workers. The average elementary school student spends hundreds of dollars a year
on schooling, and middle school students spend thousands of dollars. High school is even more. But basically
there are no kids yet who can't afford to go to school for lack of money.
4. Workers' working conditions
Since it is a coal mine, we are mainly concerned about the accident rate, safety and security of the enterprise and the aftermath of accidents
treatment.
According to what we learned from ordinary workers, Tong Coal Group is, after all, a state-owned mega coal
mine, which is still doing well in terms of production safety. Coal mining is inherently dangerous, and it's impossible to be absolutely
safe. Accidents happen every year, sometimes one or two deaths a year, sometimes two or three, sometimes three or four. The mine
sets a death rate of 0.1 per million tons of coal, which is still relatively low. According to this ratio, with the same
Coal Group's current output of 40 million tons/year, a few deaths per year is normal.
The two biggest accidents in recent years were both gas explosions. One was the
gas explosion at the Nine Mine on October 27, 1993, which killed 28 people. The other is the second mine on September 5, 2000, "95" gas explosion, a large
accident, more deaths and injuries. It is said that the reason is the captain hired from Sichuan in the 170-meter-deep shaft with
electric stove cooking, triggered a gas explosion, 52 people died (another master said that the deaths were not counted, because
for the gas explosion after the collapse of the mine, all buried underneath the), the public said only 32.
According to what we have learned, many of the accidents were also caused by unauthorized operation of the workers.
The reason for the unauthorized operation is also divided into different situations, in addition to the workers do not understand the operating rules and regulations of this situation, but also
There is a situation is to pursue efficiency and ignore the safety regulations. For example, the motor broke down according to the regulations
should be shut down, but because the income of the workers and the amount of coal mining is directly linked, workers in order to cut more coal will violate the rules of operation,
as much as possible to seize the time. Another example is when we were interviewed at the No. 2 mine, we saw miners riding down the shaft in a high-speed
lift cable car at the entrance to the shaft where workers go down to the mine. The worker in charge of safety said that according to the regulations, the door of the gondola should be closed
up, but usually they don't close it. Maybe it's because of the trouble. In fact, many accidents are caused by paralysis
.
For formal workers, there will be compensation and pension after the accident. In the case of the gas
explosion at the Nine Mine in 1993, the pension was 60,000 dollars per person. But in 2000, after the second mine of the "95" gas explosion, because
In the death of the workers, some of the temporary workers hired from abroad, some of them do not have pensions at all.
People from outside the country, if they came in a group, and give a little compensation; if there is no family or friends, it is not seen alive,
death, not see the body, will not give any compensation for the pension. Worker masters say this: "the central simply do not understand, that
么大的事故从来没人来采访，工人从来没见过记者，有记者来，好吃好喝，
下不来，上边早就一块黑布遮好了".
We also interviewed a nine-mining disabled retired workers, had been working underground for eight years, 95 years tickle
shoulder was pulled off the belt, disabled retired. Now do not have to go to work, open a small store, the monthly wage used to be
five or six hundred, is now eight hundred; see the cost of the arm are borne by the mine; the buyer only paid three thousand
yuan, the other subsidized by the mine; small store do not have to pay taxes.
Summarizing the above, we can roughly understand that Tong Coal Group, as a state-owned special
large state-owned enterprise in the coal industry, is quite OK in terms of safety, with a relatively low rate of accidents; although to a certain extent
there is also the problem of neglecting safety for the sake of efficiency, but it's a lot better than local small coal mines; for the home
in local For local workers, there is a compensation package for those who have been in an accident. But it seems
that this kind of compensation is not really a matter of concern for the workers, but rather a matter of necessity, which is not given when it can be. The temporary workers in the field
are not given any compensation when something happens to them!
By the way, write another thing. Just our next morning in the same coal group headquarters board of directors of people interview
, from where I heard the bad news of Shanxi sermon county a local coal mine just two days ago, a huge gas explosion accident
. After reading the news, I learned that at about 7:40 a.m. on April 30, a gas explosion occurred in the Liangjiahe
coal mine in Xi'an County, Shanxi Province, killing 36 miners, most of whom were from Shaanxi, Sichuan, Chongqing, and other foreign miners. 5
The May 12 edition of China Youth Daily published an article titled "Shanxi Youth Daily" reporter Wu Gang Liu
Bing Wang and the Court", which was published in the Chinese version of this article. Investigation into the Unnatural Deaths of 36 Miners in Xi'an County," which contained this passage
: "'Liangjiahe Coal Mine is the only coal mine in Xi'an County, and it pays Xi'an County more than 2 million yuan in taxes every year, which can be considered a pillar industry for
our agricultural county with an annual revenue of 14 million yuan. ' So said a
government official in Xi'an County. It is reported that the Liangjiahe coal mine was in operation for only two years before it exploded."