Honda succumbs to union pressure, offers 30% pay hike in China

BEIJING: Japanese auto maker Honda became the second foreign firm to announce substantial wage increase following industrial action seen in the premises of three multinational companies in the past two weeks. The other company to effect wage rise is Foxconn of Taiwan while KFC executives are engaged in negotiations with a trade union run by the Communist Party.

Honda has announced a 24% wage hike to end a workers’ strike that paralyzed operations at its components factory in southern China. The strike, which affected production at four vehicle assembly plants in China, has been withdrawn after the wage increase.
The move comes in the wake of an announcement by Hon Hai, the world’s largest electronics component maker, for a 30% increase in salaries of its workers in China. The factories based in China, which Hon Hai refers as Foxconn Technology Group, have been hit by a series of over a dozen suicides by workers.

Local officials and the media in South China has blamed high level management pressure and poor working conditions at its factories as the main cause of the suicides over the past two months. The suicides gave the company, which produces components for Apple and Del, a bad name and forced it to hike wages

Read more at the Times of India