SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- Hundreds of workers gathered outside a Shanghai electrical components factory this week to demand pay and protest layoffs, as recession-related unrest spread to China's commercial capital.
Police faced off Tuesday with dozens of workers outside the factory gates at Shanghai Yihsin Industry, in a western Shanghai suburb. On Monday, workers said that hundreds showed up, and that a few workers were hurt when they scuffled with factory guards.
There were no reports of serious injuries.
"We just want reasonable payments and legal, fair benefits," said Liu Chunqiong, a technician at the factory, which makes battery chargers and other computer-related equipment. "They owe each of us more than 1,000 yuan (about $150)," he said.
The secretary to the company's general manager, who would not give her name, refused comment, saying that her boss was out of town.
Protests have flared up in China in recent months among laid-off workers and others disgruntled over working conditions and pay.
Most of the unrest reported so far has been centered in southern China's export zones in Guangdong, where hundreds of factories have shuttered due to surging costs and collapsing global demand for exports, especially of cheap toys, shoes and other low-cost products.
But weakening sales of other consumer items, including appliances and computers, is spreading financial troubles to other industries and regions.
Shanghai Yihsin is a wholly owned unit of Huan Hsin Holdings Ltd., a company based in Singapore with operations in Taiwan, China and San Carlos, California, according to the company's Web site.
It says the company makes laptop computer and printer casings, communications equipment, digital cameras and other electronics equipment on contract for various major manufacturers, including Siemens, Lucent Technologies, Sharp, Panasonic and Sony.
Information on the factory's financial status was not available. However, parent company Huan Hsin, whose shares are traded in Singapore, reported that its net profit fell 86 percent in the third quarter of this year to 900,000 Singapore dollars ($595,670), from S$6.4 million in July-September of 2007.
The company, which has been building new factories in Shanghai and in nearby Suzhou, blamed higher taxes, labor and materials costs.
Workers said Shanghai Yihsin suspended production more than a month ago due to a lack of orders, with all the workers forced to take leave or attend "lectures" by managers, workers said.
"It implies no work and no income," Liu said.
China's leaders have sought to blunt the impact of potentially destabilizing layoffs due to plunging export orders by pushing ahead with spending on job-creating construction projects and other moves aimed at stimulating domestic demand.
But these few months will reflect sharp cuts in output due to plunging orders ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays -- traditionally a peak season, economists say.
"The unemployment rate has been soaring as low value-added and labor intensive processing trade tumbled," investment bank Merrill Lynch said in a report issued Monday.
