By staff reporters
NABU CONGUL, January 11 - Workers at the Pachinko
industrial plant have won a wage dispute that prompted the company to
shut down its Nabu Congul factory and disguise it as a robbery.
Employees arrived at work yesterday to find the factory stripped of its
most valuable machinery.
Nearby residents said they heard metal scraping along concrete overnight
and glass breaking shortly before dawn.
"I couldn't sleep," said Yuko Visma, who lives 50 meters
from the plant. "I didn't want to go outside. I thought the plant was
being raided. That, or they'd started work on a new production line. The
noise."
Police were called to the scene by Pachinko employees. A spokesman said
investigators had ruled out robbery and confirmed none of the factory
workers were suspects.
Added to police evidence was a tape found outside the plant. The
recording, made the following day, documents sounds of a spontaneous
mourning punctuated with the sounds of smaller machinery being turned on
and let run at times. It is believed the tape is of the former
employees.
Having discovered the tape, authorities stopped the removal of the
machinery off the island. The company was under injunction for the
backpay of wages dating back to last year.
Police say Pachinko's owners chose to abandon the machinery. It has
since been returned to the factory where workers have reassembled it and
are running it themselves.
