Toyota started production again on Monday, at one of its plastic parts factory in China’s north-eastern Tianjin city. Workers at the Toyoda Gosei Co. had gone on strike last Thursday demanding better pay and benefits.

It was the second strike for the Japanese car maker in one week. Last Tuesday, workers at another Toyota parts supplier in Tianjin stopped working. That strike ended a day later after the company, Tianjin Star Light Rubber and Plastic Co. agreed to review the pay for its 800 workers.

Police were called in during the Toyoda Gosei strike on Thursday. Footage shot by one worker on their mobile phone shows a scuffle between authorities and staff.

A worker, who did not wish to disclose her name, was reluctant to say much about the strike.

[Anonymous, Toyota Worker]:
“The strike has been on for two days. I have no idea. I have to go now.”

Some experts have noticed the recent strikes by Chinese workers have mostly happened at foreign-owned companies.

[Lu Xiaobo, Director of Columbia Global Centers in East Asia]:

“I think what is interesting is—politically—to labor, to workers, to strike against foreign capital (will) probably be safer than against Chinese and... you know... purely Chinese company. I think that's probably true. I think that labor conditions, in terms of wages, in terms of production safety and work conditions, probably foreign companies are not that worse, not that much worse than the Chinese factories."

More than a million migrant workers make up the bulk of low-cost labor in China’s factories. Many have moved from rural areas to large cities in search of wealth, but instead find themselves faced with low paying, monotonous and unfulfilling jobs.