Chinese Workers Kill Boss

I just sent this e-mail to a comrade and noticed that there was nothing on it here so I figured I'd post..

Here's the link to a CNN video that gives some interesting details.

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2009/07/27/vause.china.steel.protest.cnn

On Friday the Workers apparently decided on a work stoppage and factory occupation. The number of workers at the plant is about 30,000 from most sources I've seen. This implies that mass assemblies would had to have happened in order for the workers to act in a collective manner i.e. work stoppage/occupation. They even erected barricades.

Another interesting point is that CNN says that a "delegation of workers" went to the new factory manager in order to (presumably) open some sort of dialogue. The new manager then demanded the workers return to work, and the workers attacked and beat the manager, possibly even throwing him down a flight of stairs.

The presence of a "delegation of workers" implies that the 30,000 factory workers (possibly in mass assemblies?) went so far as to choose a "delegation" to represent the larger body of workers. And then of course there's the striking militancy of the workers.

I'm assuming that there weren't any trade unions involved, but I don't know much about unions in China. I'm sure that there are state sanction trade unions or something, but none of the articles I've read have implied any union involvement. If that's true I think this is a pretty significant event. Any thoughts?