Touch screen maker Wintek lays off 7,000 in China as 200 firms demand money
Suppliers protest outside plants, saying Taiwanese company owes them ¥230m
More than 7,000 employees of Taiwanese touch screen maker Wintek Corporation were laid off yesterday at its factories in Dongguan, Guangdong province, where more than 200 mainland suppliers have spent the past week protesting against unpaid debts they say total 230 million yuan (HK$290 million).
Dozens of armed civilian policemen guarded the two plants - Dongguan Masstop Liquid Crystal Display in Dongcheng district and Wintek (China) Technology in the Songshan Lake Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone - as the workers left in the afternoon.
Most went peacefully, having received compensation and their last month's salary, though suppliers vented their anger.
"Wintek shut down the factories suddenly. It's an absolute swindle of more than 200 mainland suppliers," said Hu Zhi, a supplier who says he's owed two million yuan.
"All the Taiwanese managers ran away. Our mainland suppliers have no way to contact the Taiwanese company. If the local authorities do not help us to reach Wintek over the undischarged debts, many of us will also face capital chain failure and have to back-pay our workers."
Huang Wei, manager of Dongguan-based Huixin Company, said Wintek owed his company 600,000 yuan.
Wintek reported a loss of NT$10 billion (HK$2.48 billion) last year, and NT$3 billion in the first half of this year.