How can a person's fate change? Through 18 years of hard work and tempering, Dai Jingming grew from a migrant worker into a knowledgeable labor team leader and construction expert, having received honors such as the “National May 1st Labor Medal” and “National Model Worker.” In 2008, he attended the 15th National Congress of Chinese Trade Unions as a representative of migrant workers from Tianjin. In 2009, he proudly participated in the mass parade celebrating the 60th anniversary of the founding of New China.

    Dai Jingming was born in 1969 in Liuyuan Town, Linzhang County, Hebei Province. In 1991, after graduating from high school, Dai Jingming followed his elders to work at a local construction site. From laborer and rebar worker to technician, Dai Jingming was hardworking and quick-witted, and soon became a small “foreman.”

    In 1995, the 26-year-old Dai Jingming led a construction team of forty to fifty people to Tianjin. When they first arrived, the team started with odd jobs and rebar tying, gradually accumulating experience and reputation in building construction. In 1999, they joined the labor team of the Second Construction Company of Tianjin Construction Engineering Group.

    “In construction, you can't rely on physical strength alone; you also need skills.” The projects undertaken by Tianjin Second Construction Company were large in scale, complex in technique, and high in quality and technical requirements. To accomplish something big, Dai Jingming worked on site during the day, studied technology and management at night school in the evening, and cooperated with Tianjin Second Construction Company to establish a training school for migrant workers, inviting professionals to teach his team about construction technology, safety production, and other knowledge. Through diligent study, Dai Jingming obtained the technical grade of Level 2 Project Manager and the title of Engineer.

    “What others can do, we must do well; what others cannot do, we must also do well. The hard bones others are unwilling to gnaw, we will gnaw.” Dai Jingming often admonished his colleagues in this way.

    Tianjin Jinwan Plaza was a key municipal tribute project with a tight schedule, heavy tasks, and great difficulty. Dai Jingming led 400 migrant workers responsible for the construction of the second basement level. The project was close to the Haihe River, with serious underground water seepage, which brought great difficulty to blasting operations. To meet the schedule, Dai Jingming led his team in 24-hour shifts. The blasting period was only five or six days, but they completed it with quality and quantity in 36 hours. For the second basement level, formwork erection and rebar tying to meet concrete pouring conditions normally required half a month, but Dai Jingming and his team completed the task in just four days and four nights.

    In the Tianjin construction market, wherever there were urgent, difficult, dangerous, or heavy projects, Dai Jingming and his team were always there. Many construction unit executives praised them, saying: “Dai Jingming and his labor team are a construction team that can be trusted, relied upon, rushed into action, and win battles. We need teams like this!”

    “In our line of work, the key is credibility—credibility with workers, with clients, and with owners. Now I have a lot of business because they trust me as a person. Whatever you do, you must be solid and practical, be honest and work diligently—this is our principle,” Dai Jingming said. “I have never forgotten the days of sharing hardships with my fellow workers.” After several years of effort, Dai Jingming's labor team gradually gained fame and a firm foothold in Tianjin's construction industry. Today, Dai Jingming's labor team has grown from the initial forty or fifty people to four or five hundred.

    Through 18 years of struggle in the construction market, Dai Jingming grew from a rural boy carrying bricks and pushing carts on construction sites into an expert in the construction industry with proficient management, solid skills, and the ability to tackle tough battles—from a migrant worker to the leader of a large labor team and a construction expert. However, in his eyes, it was national policies that gave him the opportunity and the city that gave him the platform, enabling an ordinary migrant worker to transform from pure physical labor to a knowledge-based, skilled, and management-oriented worker, and to achieve what he has today.

    “I am also a migrant worker; I know the hardships of migrant workers. As a migrant worker labor team leader, I have the responsibility and obligation to help everyone achieve a higher quality of life!” These are Dai Jingming's heartfelt words.