Honda workers go on strike in China
Honda’s growth for 2010 could well be derailed if they don’t get their workers back inside, however the workers demands appear to be on the rather high side on paper.
From the BBC:
Honda has had to halt production at its four Chinese car assembly factories, because of a strike over pay at one of its China-based parts plants.
The Japanese company said talks were continuing to try to resolve the dispute at the parts facility in the southern city of Fushan.
The strike at the plant, which makes gearboxes and engine parts, started last week.
Honda said it hoped to resume production as soon as possible.
Resolution effortsAccording to newspaper reports, the 1,900 staff at the parts facility want their monthly wages to be increased from 1,500 yuan ($220; £151) to 2,500 yuan.
“We are still trying to resolve the labour dispute with the help of the local government at the Fushan plant,” said Honda’s China spokesman Zhu Linjie.
Like most of the world’s leading carmakers, Honda has enjoyed a big rise in sales in China.
It sold 219,514 cars in China during the first four months of this year, up 39% on a year earlier.
Honda runs three of its four car assembly factories in China as joint ventures with Chinese carmakers to supply the domestic market.
It has two factories in association with Guangzhou Automobile and one with Dongfeng Motor Corporation.
Honda’s fourth Chinese factory makes its Jazz small car model solely for export.
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An industry precedent has been set. We all know the power of autoworkers.
It’s about time these people got paid a decent wage. 1500 a month is nothing. It’s poverty. And with China buying so many of these cars, they really should be treating their workers decently. Can you imagine if Honda tried to pay their workers in the US and Japan the same relative salary?
I agree, It’s about time companies like these started treating everyone equally.
1500 to 2500 is a big jump, obviously the workers are aiming for the 1800rmb area here.
It is a big jump, but it’s Honda’s fault for not paying them more to start with. A lot of foreign companies treat their Chinese workers unfairly, and workers in other areas have much better policies and benefits. I can understand that situations are different in different countries, but 1500, even 1800 is still too little. I just hope that they will get a sufficient raise.
If 80% of the profit earned by Honda world-wide in 2009 is from China, you can tell Honda’s operations in China is a great rip-off. This kind of practice is not allowed in the west and only feasible with the help from the Chinese government. China is not a communist country, it is a straight out capitalist country even compared with US.
Interesting link….
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/honda-to-resume-production-in-china/article1598876/