Thousands of Chinese workers in Jiangsu and Guangdong provinces have clashed with police in separate strikes in recent days over excessive overtime and poor pay.More than 3,000 workers at the Taiwan-invested electronics company Power Success (Kun Shan) Ltd gathered outside their factory in Jiangsu on Wednesday, calling for talks with management, who instead called the police.Police had beaten a number of workers during clashes outside the factory.Meanwhile, in the southern province of Guangdong, workers at the Jingmo Electronics Factory in Shenzhen's No. 3 Industrial District clashed with police after they blocked a national highway on Tuesday.

The clashes came as hundreds of police arrived to clear National Highway 107, where a number of striking workers were protesting.

The workers at Jingmo, which makes computer peripherals, were also angry at the amount of overtime they were expected to work, striking workers said.

Workers were often required to work overtime shifts for as long as six hours in the evenings, and even through the night.

The strikes are the latest in a string of industrial disputes to hit the Pearl River Delta in recent weeks.

China's striking workers often come from a new generation of migrant workers from inland provinces, who are less prepared to tolerate poor pay and working conditions.