Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Unions Won’t Call for General Strike
- Activists didn’t reach threshold in vote on strike over law
- China to impose security law aimed at Hong Kong activists
Hong Kong labor unions and students failed to amass enough support to strike against national security laws that China plans for the city, underscoring the struggle to reignite a protest movement that’s lost momentum because of the pandemic and the increasing threat of arrest.
Organizers said 8,943 union members participated in a city-wide poll, falling short of their 60,000 total vote threshold to go ahead with a general strike, even though 95% of participants supported the move. Separately, the Secondary School Students Action Platform affiliated with prominent activist Joshua Wong said it would not initiate a class boycott as they only received 3,393 in-person supporting votes, also falling short of the target of 5,000 in-person votes. A total of 88% of 9,910 high school students who voted in-person or electronically agreed to a walkout.