After a long, hot spring of industrial unrest, the Chinese government is attempting to bring closure to the last in a series of high-profile labor disputes involving some of the world's most powerful multinational companies.

On June 12, neighbourhood committee cadres visited the homes of 69 Walmart employees who remain locked in an arbitration case with their former employer in Changde, a small city in Hunan province

Kevin Lee | Bloomberg | Getty Images

The neighbourhood officials, who enforce Chinese Communist party diktats at street level, carried pictures of the workers and conveyed a simple message to them and their families: don't interfere in Walmart's removal of goods from the store, which closed in March, and accept the retailer's enhanced settlement offer of Rmb3,000 ($480) each for "legal fees" incurred during the three-month dispute.

Over recent months, a series of high-profile industrial actions at multinational employers such as IBM and Yue Yuen Industrial, one of the world's largest shoe manufacturers, have been resolved. Other workers charged with disturbing public order have been released, in contrast to the harsh treatment of human and legal rights activists like Pu Zhiqiang. Read MoreWal-Mart takes on the Chinese government

Chinese officials say they support neither side in the Walmart dispute in Changde and insist that the retailer's former workers, who are demanding greater compensation, are free to fight for their rights through legal channels. But as evidenced by the neighbourhood committees' interventions last week, the government is keen to bring closure to what has been a long, hot spring of industrial unrest. The Yue Yuen Industrial strike, over alleged underpayment of social security benefits, involved tens of thousands of workers, illustrating the potential power of China's fragmented but rapidly evolving labor movement. The country's only officially sanctioned union, the normally reticent All China Federation of Trade Unions, has traditionally urged workers to seek compromise in disputes with management, even if its members are unhappy with the outcome. The Changde dispute has attracted global attention in large part because of the unusually pugnacious approach taken by the store's ACFTU branch.