Under the wary eyes of our factory leaders, about 300 of us set off, as if for battle.
"All these old cadres are former factory leaders and party leaders so they have knowledge and standards," said Mr. Zhou's wife, Zhao Yan, a frail-looking woman in a print housedress.
"Factory leaders are now being told to find customers and source materials," he said, "but they've been trained to follow the state plan so they need some help".
Cooperation of factory leaders in organising shift times for the workers involved can facilitate data collection.
Ex-workers say this is just PR. "Once you've exhausted all the people from Royston, from Grimethorpe, from Barnsley, [ASOS] just get all the people in from the continent who are more than prepared to work under these conditions," a former factory team leader told VICE News.
A sizeable Somali contingent remains employed at the factory — Somali leaders say the number is about 100; the union puts the figure at more than 300, making similar disruptions possible next year.
And 29-year-old Jhonnie Palencia was a mattress factory worker and leader of the leftist political party called Bandera Roja, or Red Flag.
But a few of the factory's union leaders had been anticipating this moment.
In April 2011, an urgent meeting was called in Dhaka, bringing together 50 labor leaders, factory owners, government officials and representatives of retailers like Walmart, Sears, Gap and Target.
