A southern factory in China which makes shoes for Nike and Adidas had tens of thousands of workers strike on Wednesday, rights groups and a worker said.
According to Agence France-Presse, unpaid social insurance payments were being protested by more than 30,000 staff at the Yue Yuen Industrial (Holdings) factory in Dongguan city for several days, said U.S.-based China Labour Watch, adding that police had beaten and detained several protesters.
"China is facing labor unrest as its economic growth slows and as factories in its southern manufacturing heartland report a shortage of workers, prompting rising demands from staff," AFP reported.
Nike, Adidas, Puma and New Balance are some of the foreign brands that the company manufactures shoes for, Yue Yuen stated on its website.
The factory at Dongguan in Guangdong province is partly Taiwanese-owned, according to AFP. A spokesperson at Yue Yuen's office in Hong Kong was not immediately available for comment.
"The workers are still striking, and the numbers have probably increased," said Dong Lin, a worker at the Shenzhen Chunfeng Labour Justice Service Department, a rights organization in close contact with the workers.
"They are demanding unpaid social benefits."
The plant, with an estimated 40,000 workers, said that no deal had been reached yet between the two parties.
"The factory has released a notice saying it will dismiss the workers if they continue," he said.
"Factory authorities have promised workers they will make the welfare payments some time before the end of 2015, a female employee told AFP, declining to be named due to fear of arrest," AFP reported.
But workers were not satisfied with the offer, she added. "The factory could just leave in the middle of next year, and we might end up without welfare payments."
"No one is willing to stand out and lead the protests, because we are scared that the factory will take revenge against us later," she said, adding, "Local media does not dare to report our strike."
