BEIJING — Some 30,000 Chinese steelworkers clashed with police in a protest over plans to merge their mill with another company and beat the company’s general manager to death, a human rights monitor said Saturday.
Several hundred people were injured in the clash Friday in the northeastern city of Tonghua, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said in a faxed statement.
Employees of Tonghua Iron and Steel Group object to plans for Jianlong Steel take control of the company, the center said. It said Beijing-based Jianlong controlled the company temporarily last year, and employees blame Jianlong for financial problems suffered at the time.
Angry Tonghua employees attacked Jianlong general manager Chen Guojun during the protest and beat him to death, the center said. It said friends of Chen confirmed he was dead.
Workers were angry that Chen was paid some 3 million yuan ($438,000) last year while some retirees received as little as 200 yuan ($29) a month, the center said.
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Labour relations in China are rather spirited, aren’t they?
Central planning gone awry. The Chinese government is putting out “spot fires” everywhere – no matter how repressive a government, eventually the little people rebel.