This Bystander will be convinced that the supposed groundswell of factory workers’ discontent with their pay and conditions is a significant force once the strikes we have seen in recent weeks that have hit car production at Honda and now Toyota plants spread beyond foreign-owned factories to domestically-owned ones. One of the purposes of the news blackout on these strikes is to forestall that happening through copycatting. There is no sign that the authorities will tolerate widespread illegal industrial action or the circumvention of government-sanctioned unions at Chinese-owned factories.
Tag Archives: strikes
Honda Strike Presages Higher Wage Costs
Industrial strikes beyond token protests are uncommon in China but growing in number by all accounts. The one at a Honda parts factory in Foshan that has shut down all four of the Japanese car makers assembly lines in the country is notable. It is being talked of as the largest industrial action since China started opening up its economy to foreign investment.
Workers at Honda’s Foshan plant are demanding that their monthly salaries be raised from 1,000-1,5000 yuan ($146-220) to 2,000-2,500 yuan. Minimum wage in the city is 920 yuan. The plant employs some 1,850 workers making transmissions and engine parts for Honda’s three joint venture factories building cars for the domestic market and its one that makes the export-only Jazz compacts. They say they want more money to offset rising consumer prices.
Negotiations between the company and the workers broke down, prompting local officials to step in. With labor shortages being reported in the Pearl River Delta, workers have a stronger bargaining hand than before. So manufacturing wage costs seem likely to rise across the board.
China Bystander 