A strike by one thousand workers was curtailed by armed police in the southern China city of Shenzhen on September 2. At least two workers were injured and taken to a hospital.
The workers were employees of the local factory of Philips Respironics, a sleep and respiratory healthcare apparatus manufacturer, headquartered in the U.S. The workers were expressing their grievances with the company for changing their work hours, effecting wage deflation through various tactics, and providing inferior quality meals and benefits.
According to a worker, the strike was triggered because the factory initiated a new work policy time change as of September 1. Under the new policy, workers would lose half an hour of overtime pay, but would still be required to finish the same workload for each working day. Workers had also long been expressing dissatisfaction with the food and benefits provided by the company. Over the past year, the company had offset workers’ wages in at least one covert way, by increasing the workload.
An unidentified employee confirmed that an agreement could not be reached with the company so the workers launched a strike on September 1. The company laid off three supervisors the same day and recorded absences for all those who protested. This only aggravated the situation.
The employee said, “On the morning of September 2, we were still on strike. We blocked the gate to the factory. The company called dozens of armed police. They started beating us up as soon as they got out of the cars, and two female workers were injured and admitted to the hospital. The company refused to pay for their medical bills.”
