Strikes spread in China as workers demand decent life

WILDCAT strikes are continuing to spread in China's northern industrial heartland, as more and more workers begin to challenge the pay and conditions under which they drive the country's economic engine.

• Employees at the Mitsumi Electric Company in Tianjin are the latest to take industrial action in China's industrial heartland

Employees at the Mitsumi Electric Company factory in Tianjin are the latest to join the stoppages, which has affected factories used by giants such as Honda and Toyata, and US company Ingersoll Rand.

Handmade banners with workers' demands hung from the factory gate yesterday while about 30 workers gathered near one entrance in heavy rain, cheering reporters. The factory is wholly owned by Japanese firm Mitsumi Electric, a maker of electronics components.

"Human traffickers are not welcome", read one banner at the factory gate. "We want a pay rise" and "Return Our Blood Money" said other banners.

The plant with 3,000 workers is the latest high-profile target in slow-burning but persistent labour unrest that has hit foreign-owned companies, often left vulnerable by their position in complex supply chains and by a tightening labour market.

Over past weeks, striking workers have demanded higher wages from car parts makers and other manufacturers, especially Japanese auto parts companies with operations in the south.

Workers, many of them migrants from poor villages, say their wages have not kept up with rising prices or the profits reaped by firms using China as a low-cost production base.

"These strikes show that workers feel more confident that the labour market is moving in their favour," said Li Changping, a former Chinese local official who studies rural issues.

"Part of it is that they feel left out of the wealth, but another part of it is that they feel they have gained enough from rising wages that they can take a stand, demand a fairer share," said Li,

Police guarded the Mitsumi plant and stopped reporters from speaking to the workers inside, and empty coaches were parked outside the gate to block filming of the protest, underscoring the sensitivity of the unrest for the Communist Party-run government, wary of challenges to its grip on power.

The striking workers were demanding higher wages and improved benefits, China's official Xinhua news agency said .

"You have to be really willing to work. My daughter left because she was too tired. They work more than ten hours there," said the mother of one former employee, who like many of the plants' workers, lives nearby.

One worker told Xinhua he received just $220 a month after working Saturdays and two hours overtime every weekday.

"We're on strike because the factory has never increased our wages and they keep increasing our workload.

Workforce becomes bolder as earlier action shows how it's done

So far the high-profile strikes appear to be spontaneous movements at individual plants, by just a tiny sliver of a vast workforce.

The earlier strikes have ended after workers accepted offers of improved pay and conditions. Many of the strike-hit factories are parts suppliers for vehicle plants run by Japanese firms and local joint-venture partners.

Many striking workers say they took inspiration from hearing about the success of earlier walkouts. The copy-cat chain of strikes shows a workforce that is becoming bolder, and that may prompt some companies to pre-emptively raise wages. The outburst of labour unrest could prompt the central government, wary of unrest spreading, to become more energetic about wage and labour standards, which have been patchily enforced by local officials worried about deterring investors.

Prime minister Wen Jiabao has already said that migrant workers "deserve better". It's too tiring," a worker, who gave only her surname Wang, said.

Mitsumi Electric Company spokesman Yoshitsugu Murakami said the factory is located in the same district as other Japanese factories, such as Toyota and Honda affiliates. "We suspect the situation might have been affected by the earlier developments at other factories," he said.

China's domestic media have been largely mute about the strikes, apparently due to state censorship. Labour costs in China have been rising, partly encouraged by a government that wants to turn farmers and workers into more confident consumers, even as it tries to keep a lid on strikes.

Earlier strikes disrupted production at auto makers Toyota and Honda, and have laid bare the rising demands of China's 150 million migrant workers.

Premier Wen Jiabao has promised to improve their living conditions but not their pay.