Thousands of miners and their families in northeastern Jilin province yesterday blocked a main railway line to protest over outstanding wages owed, according to a Hong Kong-based human rights group and local officials.
Demonstrators took over a railway station in Jishu village in Shulan city, Jilin, yesterday morning, and as many as 4,000 were blocking the line, said the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy.
Most of the protesters were office workers, miners and their families who are owed money by the Shulan Mine Industry Bureau.
The strike was organised to demand that the debt-ridden firm immediately pay the salaries, the group said.
One miner was quoted by the centre as saying that the state-owned firm had not paid the miners for 17 months, while office workers had not received wages for 2.5 years.
The local Public Security Bureau had dispatched about 500 police to the station but officials had not yet taken action against the protesters, the centre said.
The massive strike was confirmed by local railway station employees and police officers, who said the workers were still there at 4pm yesterday.