China: miners strike attacked

Tanjianshan
Tanjianshan

800 striking miners at the Tanjiashan Coal Mine in Hubei Province fought hired security guards for two hours last week after they attempted to break a six day strike.

Submitted by Mike Harman on August 20, 2007

Radio Free Asia reported that the security guards set about the workers and in the ensuing clash at least one worker and one security guard died. The conflict lasted about two hours, during which time the workers vented their anger by attacking company offices and two nearby police vehicles they believed had been used to transport management's hired security guards to the mine.

One of the strikers told Radio Free Asia on the evening of 15 August that another hundred or so people were gathering around the perimeter of the mine, and the miners feared that another attack intended to drive them off the premises was imminent.

Theminers had been on strike for six days after they discovered that 360 million yuan allocated by the central government for the workers' redundancy payments as part of the mine's privatization plan had allegedly been appropriated by mine's board of directors.

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