American Chip Starnes, a co-owner of the Coral Springs, Florida-based Specialty Medical Supplies, said on Monday that he has been held hostage for four days at his supply plant in Beijing, China by workers who have demanded severance packages like those given to 30 co-workers in a phased-out department, the Associated Press reported.
Starnes said local officials visited the 10-year-old plant on Beijng's outskirts, coercing him into signing agreements to meet the workers' demands even as he sought to make clear that the remaining 100 workers were not being laid off, the AP also reported. Workers were expecting to receive wire transfers by Tuesday, he said. Under captivity, Starnes said that about 80 people were blocking every exit around the clock, and depriving him of sleep by shining bright lights and banging on windows of his office.
"I feel like a trapped animal," Starnes told the AP. "I think it's inhumane what is going on right now. I have been in this area for 10 years and created a lot of jobs and I would never have thought in my wildest imagination something like this would happen." Workers inside the compound, located in the Huairou district repeatedly denied requests for comments. "I feel like a trapped animal," Starnes told The Associated Press on Monday from his first-floor office window, while holding onto the window's bars. "I think it's inhumane what is going on right now. I have been in this area for 10 years and created a lot of jobs and I would never have thought in my wildest imagination something like this would happen."
It is not rare in China for managers to be held by workers demanding back pay or other benefits, news reports said.
A local police spokesman said police were at the scene to maintain order, and four uniformed police and about a dozen other men who declined to identify themselves were standing across the road from the plant, the AP reported.
"As far as I know, there was a labor dispute between the workers and the company management and the dispute is being solved," said spokesman Zhao Lu of the Huairou Public Security Bureau. " I am not sure about the details of the solution, but I can guarantee the personal safety of the manager."
Representatives from the U.S. Embassy stood outside the gate much of the day, and eventually were let in. U.S. Embassy spokesman Nolan Barkhouse said the two sides were on the verge of an agreement and that Starnes would have access to his attorneys, they said.
Starnes said the company had gradually been winding down its plastics division and planning to move it to Mumbai, India. He arrived in Beijing last Tuesday to downside, laying off 30 people. Some had been working there for up to nine years, so their compensation packages were "pretty nice," he said to AP reporters.
