|
ONE unpaid migrant worker was beaten to death at a building site in South China's Guangdong Province and hundreds of his workmates who were striking to get delayed salaries were bashed by thugs hired by the building owner.
The attackers, armed with shovels, steel pipes, axes and knives, injured many of the strikers and killed Lei Mingzhong, a laborer from Kaixian County in Southwest China's Chongqing Municipality.
The Chongqing Morning Post, reporting on the incident, said all the workers were from Chongqing and were working on a power plant construction project at Heyuan City in Guangdong Province.
Wang Guangtao, China's Minister for Construction, has ordered a thorough investigation of the incident.
Ye Dinghua, team leader of the security guards of Fuyuan Hydropower Development Co, and Zhou Wu, Fuyuan's representative at the building site, have been detained by police.
Nearly 300 workers went on strike on Friday at the site after working for four months without payment, because the owner, a subsidiary of Shenzhen based Fuyuan Energy Group, had delayed paying the contractor millions of yuan.
Having failed to coerce the workers back to work, Fuyuan then hired hundreds of thugs to fight them and force them back to work.
Ye was reported to have led the thugs carrying shovels, axes, knives and steel pipes when they rushed the workers and beat them.
The workers, most of whom were reported to have been empty-handed, suffered injuries in the fierce attack, even after police arrived at the scene. Lei was killed and while two of his workmates were forced to jump from high wall into Dongjiang River. The thugs even threw rocks into the river after them, the newspaper said.
|
