Over one thousand workers at the Wuhan Boiler Company blocked a major road in Wuhan City, the capital of Hubei Province, on July 14 to protect their job security. One elderly worker was arrested.
On the same day, appellants from neighboring Tianmen City also went to the Hubei Provincial Government building and blocked the entrance.
"I was crossing Yamao Square when I saw at least one thousand workers from the Wuhan Boiler Company blocking the road to the factory,” one witness said on Monday.
“Afterwards, people started to move toward Wuluo Road. When the workers moved toward the center of Wuhan Road, they clashed with several hundred policemen and anti-riot guards. An elderly worker was arrested and put in a police car that drove toward Zhongnan Road. One female worker was arrested after being surrounded by anti-riot guards, but she was later rescued by other workers. Those workers were booing in a rage. People were talking loudly. Some residents were taking photos with their cell phones. An intern reporter from the Chutianjin Newspaper was interviewing the workers, and I asked him, ‘Does Chutianjin Newspaper dare to report this?’ The intern reporter looked embarrassed and did not reply.”
One worker at the scene said he heard a police officer talking on his cell phone, saying that appellants from Tianmen City were gathering in front of the Hubei Provincial Government building and blocking the entrance. The police officer was instructed to dispatch some policemen over to the building. “It looks like there are many appellants who came from Tianmen City.”
It is reported that the reason the workers blocked the roads was because Wuhan Boiler Company sold some of the company’s buildings to a real estate development company, which will result in over a thousand workers losing their jobs. The workers therefore took to the streets en-mass and held banners that read “Say No to Rights Violations, Yes to Human Rights,” “Fight to Survive,” and “Protect Our Families.” They stood on the streets and blocked the traffic. Many of them were elderly grey-haired women.
Wuhan Boiler Company has operated for 50 years and employed 10,000 to 20,000 employees.
Other Wuhan Protests
In addition, on July 9 a reconstruction project initiated by the Wuhan city authorities to connect Donghu Lake and Shahu Lake also sparked a mass protest from residents who will lose their homes to forced demolitions. Sources say that employees of Zhongnan Hospital and Wuhan University blocked Donghu Road. Those from the Wuhan City Heavy Machinery Plant blocked Zhongbei Road.Read the original article in Chinese
