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Striking miners clash over lay-offs and low compensation
Beijing (AFP) Aug 17, 2007 More than 2,000 miners clashed with security personnel close to Mao Zedong's home town to protest mass lay-offs without fair compensation, a Hong Kong-based human rights group said Friday. The miners went on strike on August 10 to oppose a management plan to dismiss 1,300 workers without fair compensation from the Tanjiashan pit in Hunan province, the Information Centre For Human Rights and Democracy said. On Wednesday fighting broke out between striking miners and about 200 security personnel employed by the mine, just 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Shaoshan, communist revolutionary leader Mao's birthplace, the statement said. Two miners were injured, it added, without elaborating. Workers were upset that mining authorities were offering just 1,140 yuan (150 dollars) compensation to workers for each year of employment, well below the industry average of 4,000 yuan, the statement said. A delegation of 80 miners travelled to the provincial capital of Changsha, to press their demands, the statement said. A Tanjiashan township official contacted by AFP confirmed that a strike and street demonstrations had taken place. "It happened several days ago, but now it's finished," said the official, who declined to give her name. "Workers were striking and demonstrating in the coal mine area. They had some problems with coal mine authorities ... The higher authorities are investigating and handling this." An employee at the coal mine who answered the phone when contacted by AFP also confirmed there had been a strike but refused to give any other details. Mao led the communists to victory against the Nationalist forces in 1949, and ruled China until his death in September 1976. Related Links Surviving the Pits
Telephone A Lifeline For Trapped Chinese Miners
Beijing (AFP) Aug 02, 2007Chinese coal miners who survived three days trapped in a flooded, pitch-black pit said they would have died if it was not for telephone contact with their rescuers, state press reported Thursday. "The most important reason for us being alive is that the telephone line was working," 32-year-old miner Yang Wanjun was quoted by the Beijing Times as saying. |
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