…After working eight years at a golfing equipment factory…[Qi Jianguang] and other workers discovered that management had failed to make social security contributions…The plant's 3,000 workers elected 13 representatives to negotiate with management…After failed negotiations, workers went on strike last July. Qi was briefly detained by police and then released. The strike ended after two days when management agreed to all the workers' demands…Seven months later, the company fired Qi over accusations that he smeared its reputation and engaged in an illegal strike. Qi is challenging the dismissal at a labor bureau but has little hope…

As with many ordinary Chinese, Ji Jiansheng started…learning about labor issues through online chat rooms…[H]e began researching the law and was soon elected to be a worker representative…[L]ike Qi he was fired several months later, ostensibly because his hearing was unfit for work…[H]e has never told his family about his activism, but vows to press on…

Wu Guijun, 42, spent about a year in jail on a charge linked to his participation in a May 2013 strike but was eventually released without a conviction…The furniture factory where he worked decided to shutter its Shenzhen operations while offering only a fraction of the required severance. Government agencies declined to intervene. Wu led a strike of 400 workers — and was jailed and arrested on the charge of gathering crowds to disrupt traffic…He received $11,000 in state compensation, which he now uses to help spread legal knowledge among workers...