Some Return to Work Amid Honda Strike (China parts for Honda assembly plants all over the world)

[Omaha Steve]

Source: NY Times

By KEITH BRADSHER

HONG KONG — Cracks emerged on Saturday afternoon in the unity of workers on strike at a Honda auto parts factory in southeastern China, the latest in a series of strikes in China in which blue-collar employees have demanded sharply higher wages.

Takayuki Fujii, a Honda spokesman in Beijing, said that the parts factory in Zhongshan, China, had resumed partial operations. But he said that he did not have details on how many workers had returned or the terms on which they had done so.

Three workers said in separate telephone interviews that the strike continued and had not been settled. But one of the three, an activist in the strike, said that “four or five workers” had gone back into the factory and restarted the equipment for one small assembly line.

One of the strike’s leaders was so intimidated during a meeting on Saturday morning with management, local authorities and representatives of the national, government-controlled union that he immediately stopped participating in the leadership of the strike and has gone into hiding, the activist added.


Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/13/business/global/13strike.html?src=busln