CHINA: Worker unrest continues at Honda Motor parts supplier

Record ID: 339445

  • Title: CHINA: Worker unrest continues at Honda Motor parts supplier
  • Date: 15th June 2010
  • Summary: ZHONGSHAN, CHINA (JUNE 14, 2010) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF HONDA LOCK EXTERIORS WORKERS MILLING AROUND INSIDE FACTORY GROUNDS VARIOUS OF BOXES IN HONDA LOCK WAREHOUSE VARIOUS OF HONDA LOCK/CHINA FLAGS VARIOUS OF BILLBOARD ADVERTISING POSITIONS AT HONDA LOCK ADVERTISEMENT READING: "HONDA LOCK, JUNE 13, 2010. Due to our business development needs of today, the company is re
  • Embargoed: 30th June 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: China
  • Country: China
  • Topics: Industry,Employment
  • Reuters ID: LVABNRMXQWK2Q0YHHRCECQTT8YWJ
  • Story Text: A strike at a Honda Motor parts supplier in southern China could augur broader demands across China's vast manufacturing belt as workers seek a bigger piece of the nation's growing economic wealth.
    About 100 workers wearing white overalls and blue caps milled about the factory grounds of the Honda Lock plant, a supplier of locks to Honda's car-making operations in China, on Monday after many of the 1,500 workers walked off the job on Wednesday.
    The standoff in the gritty factory town of Xiaolan appeared calm, but behind the scenes, holdout strikers spoke of intimidation by officials, surveillance of phone calls and Internet chatrooms, along with a campaign to hire replacements.
    Witnesses reported seeing around 100 newly recruited workers turned up for work on Monday morning to fill in the labour shortages caused by days of strikes.
    Job adverts posted by Honda Lock near the factory offered new recruits an all-inclusive pay package of "over 2,000 yuan" -- around twice the current level and more than the 1,600 yuan demanded by strikers.
    But workers at Honda Lock scoffed at the advertisement, saying they wouldn't be on strike if they were receiving this amount.
    Police tracked reporters outside the factory and videotaped proceedings as factory workers streamed out of the factory at the end of the day.
    Many seemed nervous and wouldn't talk, glancing in the direction of police walking alongside and on motorbikes.
    The strike is the latest in a series to hit factories around southern China's Pearl River Delta and a few other regions by workers demanding a greater piece of China's growing economic pie.
    The outburst of strikes continues a pattern of recent years that took a pause at the height of the global financial crisis.
    The strike at Honda Lock was the third to hit a Honda parts supplier in China in the last few weeks. The other two strikes, at suppliers producing transmissions and exhausts, were settled after workers received pay increases.
    Workers at Honda Lock said a senior parliamentary official had tried mediating at the factory on Monday, promising workers a decision on wages would be made on Friday as long as they returned to work before then.
    "They are sincere but they are asking us to wait for an answer," said one worker.
    "But sure we want to have a salary increase."
    Some said they would, while others pledged to continue the strike.
    "The provincial government sent officials and said they can give us an answer in three days. Tomorrow we'll go back to the factory and work as normal," said a Honda Lock worker on his way out who did not want to be named.
    "We agreed to go back to work because the provincial officials warned us to go back to work because striking is wrong."
    So far, management at Honda Lock has offered a pay increase of 100 yuan ($15) a month in additional wages and another 100 yuan in allowances, but many workers say that isn't enough in difficult talks that have done little to narrow differences.
    Honda had previously said production at the Honda Lock plant in the city of Zhongshan re-started on Saturday after three days of stoppage.
    Some production was running on Monday, but only partially as a number of holdouts had sabotaged operations, said Honda Lock spokesman Hirotoshi Sato.
    Guangqi Honda, one of Honda's China car-making joint ventures, was closed on Monday for a public holiday that would run through to Wednesday, said Honda spokeswoman Akemi Ando.
    Production at Guangqi Honda's two carmaking plants was disrupted last week because of strikes at the other two parts suppliers.
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