Protests by angry workers have broken out in two major industrial cities over the past few days, a human rights group and state media reported.
About 1,000 workers in Wuhan, Hubei province, blocked the main street outside the government headquarters for three days, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said yesterday. They were protesting against lay-offs and a lack of back pay by Wuhan Heavy Machinery Plant.
The group said 3,990 workers were laid off by the ailing state enterprise earlier this year. The management had signed agreements with the workers, promising to pension them off according to the years they had worked at the plant.
Workers became angry when management declared the agreement invalid last week. They took to the street on Tuesday.
A similar protest was staged by 500 workers in inland Chongqing city yesterday, the group said. The workers from Chongqing Special Steel Plant blocked the road demanding the company pay pensions as promised.
Meanwhile, in Anhui province, state media reported that hundreds of migrant workers clashed with police on Tuesday night, as farmers tried to free a colleague who had been arrested.