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Migliaia di lavoratori in protesta a Pechino

Diverse migliaia di dipendenti della Hebei Boading Yimian Group Co. Ltd, hanno marciato in segno di protesta il 3 aprile a Pechino dopo lo sciopero alla fine di marzo. Centinaia di poliziotti erano presenti alla protesta con decine di veicoli e hanno scortato i manifestanti, respinto alcuni di essi e portato via donne e uomini. 

Segue l’articolo in inglese

Several thousand workers in the Hebei Baoding Yimian Group Co., Ltd. marched in protest to Beijing on April 3, after staging a strike towards the end of March. The authorities intercepted most of the workers with a large amount of police.
As of 7 p.m. on April 4, the workers arrived at Xushui Town, which is about 25 kilometers (approx. 16 miles) from Baoding City. Local officials and police are at a standoff with the marching workers.

So far, most of the petitioners were stopped by local officials and have returned to Baoding City. However, the workers benefits’ issue with the factory remains unresolved.

Despite being forced to return to Baoding by the local authorities, protesters vowed that they would fight for their rights to the end.

Mr. Liu told The Epoch Times, “We were all sent back home at around 1 a.m. this morning (April 4). We were exhausted from the past two days. Yesterday some workers passed out and were hospitalized. There were police cars on both sides of the road. There were about seventy to eighty police cars. There was a large police force on the roads in Xushui Town. There were so many policemen. Armed policemen formed three lines to block workers from passing. There were seven to eight hundred policemen. They were all young and strong policemen and they took away old men and women.”

Yimian Group workers staged a massive strike beginning on April 3, in an effort to stop the factory owner from transferring equipment to another location. Several thousand workers surrounded the factory day and night.

The strike came about because the workers learned in late March that the factory had been secretly sold to a new owner without their knowledge. Out of the three to four thousand workers, less than one hundred will keep their jobs and work at a new factory, which is run by the China Textile Industry Department.

The workers demanded that the local authorities provide a reasonable explanation on several issues, including an illegal transfer of management of the Yimian Group, severe losses of state property, withholding unemployed workers’ compensation, pension and insurance issues. The workers also demanded the authorities audit Yimian’s assets before and after the change in management.

By Gu Qing’er
Epoch Times Staff