NYT: Honda Strike Becomes a Rallying Point in China (largest strike of global company in China)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/29/business/global/29honda.html


Joe Tan/Reuters
A security guard on Friday at a Honda manufacturing plant in Foshan, Guangdong Province, that was shut due to a labor dispute at a parts facility.

By KEITH BRADSHER and DAVID BARBOZA
Published: May 28, 2010


FOSHAN, CHINA — A strike at an auto-parts factory owned by Honda in southern China has unexpectedly become a cause célèbre in the nation’s struggle with income inequality, with Chinese media reporting extensively on the workers’ demands and calling on the government to do more to increase wages nationwide.

Strikes have occurred before at Chinese-owned factories and on rare occasions at foreign-owned plants. But the authorities have typically hushed them up and either sought a quick deal or sent in the police.

The 1,900 workers at the Honda factory here have been on strike to demand higher pay since early last week, and on Friday there was no resolution in sight. The resulting shortage of transmissions and engine parts has forced Honda to halt production this week at all four of its assembly plants in China, with one closing on Monday and the other three on Wednesday.

The work stoppage is the clearest sign yet of growing labor unrest in a country that is now the cornerstone of many companies’ global supply chains.

Zheng Qiao, the associate director of the department of employment relations at the China Institute of Industrial Relations in Beijing, said that the strike was a significant development in China’s labor relations history because the workers appeared to be well organized and united.

“The strike at Honda is the largest strike that has ever happened at a single global company in China,” he said, adding that, “such a large-scale, organized strike will force China’s labor union system to change, to adapt to the market economy.”

FULL story at link.

[ShortnFiery]

1. Yes, even the Chinese workers who seemingly live from hand to mouth ...

have had enough from the continued ABUSE of the labor force.

Time to catch a clue American Workers?

ORGANIZE!

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_3s5btRVDelg/SqHCquT7P6I/AAAAAAAAAZA/ZFNFOLLA2y8/s400/labor+organize.jpg

[SocialistLez]

2. I hope they can form a union.

I post this in solidarity.

We need a worldwide union so these bastard corporations can stop moving from country to country in an effort to drive down wages globally.