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Unpaid Chinese steelworkers protest Close to 3,000 Chinese steelworkers from a state-owned alloy metal factory in Liaoyang city, in the north-eastern Liaoning province, demonstrated last Monday over unpaid wages and pensions. Around 50 workers were injured and three protesters arrested when a squad of 900 police early on the morning of Tuesday, May 16 used clubs to disperse the demonstration that was blocking a major highway. The steelworkers reassembled later on Tuesday and marched to the city hall to protest the police actions. The building was cordoned off by 1,000 police. The protesters held banners that read "Free our workers' delegates" and "Being owed wages is not a crime" and by mid-morning had completely surrounded the building. One government official said the demonstration was the largest the city of 1.7 million people had seen in decades. An official from the Liaoyang Ferroalloy Factory, the fourth largest company in the city, admitted that around 2,000 workers still employed at the plant had not received wages for the last 16 months, while 2,000 dismissed workers and 1,000 retired workers had not received benefits for the previous three to six months. A delegation of protesters met the deputy mayor later that day. Having secured a promise that all outstanding monies would be paid by October and those arrested released, the demonstrators dispersed. Workers were skeptical that they would receive their pay as similar promises had been broken previously. In February, Liaoning province was the scene of a demonstration by 20,000 miners protesting against the bankruptcy of a state-run mine that turned into three days of clashes with police before the army stepped in. |
