A Labor Movement Stirs in China

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/11/business/global/11str...


Ariana Lindquist for The New York Times

Workers demonstrated outside the Honda factory in Zhongshan, China, on Friday.
By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: June 10, 2010


Ariana Lindquist for The New York Times

Workers demonstrated outside the Honda factory in Zhongshan, China, on Friday.
By KEITH BRADSHER
Published: June 10, 2010

Meanwhile, other scattered strikes have begun to ripple into Chinese provinces previously untouched by the labor unrest.

A near doubling of wages is the primary goal of the approximately 1,700 Honda workers on strike here in this southeastern China city, at the third Honda auto parts factory to face a work stoppage in the last two weeks.

A chanting but nonviolent crowd of workers gathered outside the factory gates on Friday morning and held a short protest march before dissolving into a large group of milling young workers who filled the two-lane road for more than a block outside the factory.

They were met by black-clad police with helmets, face masks and small round riot shields. But the workers showed no signs of being intimidated. The police marched off at midmorning, leaving the workers to block the road into the small industrial park next to a eucalyptus-lined muddy canal that runs past the factory.

The workers dispersed about an hour after the police left and remained on strike.

FULL story at link.

[SocialistLez]

1. I hope they are successful in bringing their wages up dramatically. NT