Another Honda factory downs tools and calls for a wage increase: they were "inspired" by their colleagues in the manufacturing sector, who after two weeks of strikes were given an increase in salaries. Analysts warn: "The time of paying workers peanuts is over”.

Beijing (AsiaNews) - About 250 workers from a Honda factory in Foshan yesterday launched a strike aimed at obtaining better wages and overtime higher. The protesters said they were inspired by the two weeks strike of their colleagues in the manufacturing sector, who managed to get an increase of 500 Yuan. Meanwhile, a group of workers in Hubei occupied the factory where they work, which was closed because of fraudulent bankruptcy: they are demanding their just wages.  Chinese analysts warn of "a profound change in the world of work”.

The strike started yesterday early morning. A handful of workers began a picket outside the Chancheng Honda factory, convincing more than 250 colleagues not to enter. The workers are demanding, along with increased wages, the removal of their union representative.  They claim that he belongs to management and as such cannot be a trade unionist. A 22 year old employee however, was not in favour of the strike action: "I was forced to work longer hours without extra pay, because of the strike." A spokesman for the factory maintains that "production can not be interrupted for any reason".  

The Director of the Institute for Employment Relations at Renmin University, Chiang Kai has his volunteered legal advise the striking workers.  He claims the current development model of the Pearl River Delta, which relied heavily on low-cost labour, “ought to be changed.  The current level of pay is not reasonable and the workers can not be left out of the economic prosperity forever, particularly seeing as it is generated by their labour. Sooner or later the situation might explode".

According to Chang, moreover, the factory could raise wages by 34% for all workers in exchange for losing by less than 5% of their profit: " It would be less costly for corporations to take the leading role in improving workers' salaries rather than waiting passively for strikes to happen. According to Liu Kaiming, an independent trade union activist in Shenzhen, this prediction is correct: "The labour disputes have increased exponentially in the area. Over the past five years they have reached around 10 thousand a year. "

For four weeks, the government newspaper People's Daily has been publishing articles in favour of improving the living conditions of workers. According to analysts, this is Beijing’s desperate attempt to try to lay the blame for the inhuman conditions inside factories exclusively on the industrial sector (and their hunger for money). In any event, the South China Morning Post writes, "Days of work-for-peanuts mainland labour are over"

In an editorial published today in the Hong Kong based newspaper,”the moment that corporate executives from New York to Tokyo have dreaded has arrived: Chinese workers are demanding a raise. It was great for balance sheets while it lasted. Hundreds of millions were willing to toil for a dollar or two a day. Well, those days are over and the global economy won't be the same.  Consider this the vanguard of a Chinese we-won't-work-for-peanuts movement and another reason to fret about inflation".

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