Chinese workers lock out US bosses Chinese factory workers in eastern Shandong province have turned a traditional management weapon - the lockout - back on their American bosses, by denying them access to a tyre plant at the centre of a controversial $2.5bn cross-border deal. The sustained Chinese industrial action that erupted in June after the deal was announced is the first to target a major offshore acquisition involving two foreign companies, and exposes a new risk for multinationals operating in China with local partners. Ohio-based Cooper Tire, which has accepted a buyout offer from India's Apollo Tyres, admitted for the first time on Friday that workers at its joint venture with the Chengshan Group had taken "disruptive actions." These included "denying access to certain representatives of the company and withholding certain business and financial information." If completed, the transaction would be the largest ever Indian acquisition of a US company. In a paid advertisement in the Wall Street Journal earlier this month, the union representing the striking Chinese workers said they would return to the factory and resume production of Chengshan tyres, but pledged to boycott work on Cooper branded products. The union added that its members would "not welcome the foreign shareholder and managing personnel," while also refusing to engage in "system data input work for [the joint venture's] manufacturing, operational and financial information." Lockouts are usually employed by management against workers, by barring them access to a plant or factory. "We continue to work toward resolving these issues and returning the facility to full, normal operation again as soon as possible, including by resuming the production of all tire types and brands," Cooper said in a filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. "Neither the strike nor the plant slowdown are expected to have an effect on the consummation of the merger," added the company, whose shareholders will vote on the transaction on September 30. The deal has also raised hackles among Cooper's union workforce in the US. The United Steel Workers said this week that it was involved in an arbitration hearing "to resolve the union's grievances about Cooper and Apollo's refusal to honour ... provisions in our union contracts." Cooper's Chinese footprint was one of the primary attractions behind the ambitious deal for Apollo. But the sustained resistance from workers at the Shandong joint venture, 65 per cent owned by Cooper, has now become a major headache for the US company. Unlike most other high-profile disputes between foreign manufacturers and Chinese workers, Cooper's Shandong employees are not demanding higher wages. The workers have instead complained they were not adequately consulted over Apollo's offer for Cooper. They also fear the deal will burden their prospective Indian owner with too much debt and result in a clash of corporate cultures. Separately, Chengshan Group last month filed a lawsuit against Cooper in a local court, which was asked to dissolve the joint venture. Cooper maintains that the lawsuit "lacks merit" and has said it will defend itself "vigorously."