Coca-Cola workers in China strike as US company sells bottling assets

Workers in three Chinese cities are on strike after Coca-Cola announced that it would sell its bottling assets in the country to Hong Kong conglomerate Swire Pacific and state-owned Cofco Corporation.

The labour protests are the latest in a string of demonstrations which have taken place in recent years in China, where workers are becoming more active against big business decisions.

Strikes were coordinated on Monday at the three Coca-Cola plants in Chongqing, Chengdu and Jilin, where protesters held placards with messages such as "We worked hard for over a decade but were sold in less than a second. Compensate! Compensate! Compensate!"

The beverage giant announced last week it was selling all its bottling assets in mainland China to the Swire and Cofco, with the first transaction costing 5.87bn yuan, or $848.76m. The cost of the second deal has not yet been disclosed.

Unrelated strikes also took pace at a Sony factory in southern region of the Guangzhou province. Workers are protesting at the sale of the company´s Sony Electronics Huana subsidiary after the Japanese company announced the divestment on Thursday.

With economic growth slowing in China, more and more factories have been closing, leaving workers disgruntled, unpaid and often without any redundancy pay.

As Donald Trump arrives to the White House in January of next year, fears are growing further that more investment in China will be pulled, leaving a vast number of workers without a job.