Nearly a thousand teachers from public schools in Lianjiang held a demonstration on 29 June 2013 against unjustified salary deductions and delayed payment of social insurance premiums. Unable to give an explanation about the education budget and allocation, the municipal government called in the principals of the schools involved and issued an administrative order to ban the teachers from protesting at the government office. Moreover, teachers were threatened with dismissal and blacklisting. Other teachers were locked out or forced to sign statements declaring they would not participate in demonstrations and strikes. Police was sent to guard the government office and to detain teacher representatives.
On 25 July 2013, 246 workers at Qunyi Footwear Company in Nanhai held a protest when they found out that their employer had run away without settling their wages. 29 workers were arrested and put under criminal detention for seven days for “assembling a crowd and disrupting traffic.”
On 28 January 2013, workers at Tokai Rubber Industries in Guangzhou put down their tools after the representatives they elected had failed to reach a settlement with the employer about a cut in their year-end bonus. They staged a sit-in at the factory complex and were dispersed by more than 200 police officers sent by the district government. Five workers were injured and more than 10 workers were put under administrative detention.
On 8 November 2013, 200 workers at Shenzhen Lingjin Electronics Co. Ltd blocked the factory entrance to demand a negotiation with the employer about the relocation of the plant. Refusing to negotiate, the employer called the police to arrest all the seven elected workers’ representatives. Police in plain clothes were sent to identify the active workers. On 16 November 2013, police searched the apartments of the identified workers and harassed their families.The employer threatened the workers with dismissal and government representatives pressured workers to settle for a low compensation.
On 7 November 2013, 2000 workers from Towada Electronics Company (Dongguan) went on strike after they were told by management that the company was sold. Workers demanded severance compensation and the election of new trade union representatives before signing a new contract. Refusing to negotiate with the workers’ representatives, the management dismissed and demoted the junior management who took part in the strike and warned supervisors. Plain clothes and police were sent in to follow the leaders and monitor the online discussion blogs established by workers. One worker was detained on 13 November 2013 and only released after workers blocked the company entrance.
Nokia’s Dongguan plant started to lay off a hundred workers since August 2013 under the company’s global retrenchment scheme and buyout to Microsoft. At the same time, a number of unskilled workers were recruited in October to do packaging and labeling. About 3000 workers went on strike on 19 November 2013 when the management released a new set of work rules which would allow the company to put workers under low-pay leave whenever there was less work to do. Mistrusting the enterprise union which was appointed by the management, the strikers elected their own representatives and handed a thousand signatures to the management for a negotiation. Management did not accept to start negotiations and sent dismissal notices via telephone messages from unknown sources. Management promised bonuses to workers who agreed to return to work. On 26 November 2013, anti-riot police and police plain clothes were sent to the workplace leading to a physical clash and the detention of four workers. These measures worked to break up the strike and most of the workers returned to work on 27 November 2013. 213 workers were sacked in total for illegal assembly and violating the company rules. Nokia refused their reinstatement during an arbitration hearing on 20 January 2014, claiming that the workers had already been replaced.
More than 200 workers from Framas Dongguan Plastic Ltd put down their tools from 27-30 September 2013 to protest the cancellation of the National Day bonus. Eleven supervisors who had taken part in the strike were sacked on 30 September 2013.
69 workers including fourteen workers’ representatives from Heng T Rubber (Shenzhen) were sacked between 19 and 21 October 2013 for taking part in a strike on 14 October 2013. They were protesting against the installation of CCTV at the shopfloor. The dismissed workers proceeded to labour arbitration for reinstatement.