"Guangzhou authorities force steel workers to end one week strike", 24 Feb 2016

Ansteel, [state-owned company]...new management...began to lay off staff and increase workloads and then in December, the company started to put workers on leave at 80 percent of the Guangzhou statutory minimum wage....[O]n 15 February...the company issued an open letter announcing a new performance-based pay system that would significantly reduce workers’ wages...add[ing] that the company trade union had already accepted the plan on the workers’ behalf.

Several hundred workers mobilized immediately,... The strike began on 17 February with workers demanding compensation for contract termination and to sign new contracts with Ansteel directly...[and it] spread quickly and by the third day they had effectively shut down production. Large numbers of police with riot gear and busses used for mass arrests arrived at the factory and blocked the factory gates.

[Ansteel] issued written warnings to at least 100 strikers, while offering those who returned to work a temporary bonus of 100 yuan a day. In a minor victory for the workers however, the company promised to cancel the planned pay system reform that had triggered the strike on 17 February....