Another strike cripples Honda

GUANGZHOU - A third strike in four weeks hit Honda Motor Co's Chinese suppliers on Wednesday, fuelling concerns that labor disputes in the world's manufacturing hub in South China are spreading.

Japan's No 2 automaker said a strike and production stoppage had begun on Wednesday at a factory in Guangdong province that supplies locks to all four Honda factories in China.

Workers at Honda Lock (Guangdong) Co in Zhongshan, a city near Honda's production base in Guangzhou, walked off the job on Wednesday morning as a strike dragged on at the other facility, forcing the company to halt production at two of its car assembly plants.

Yoshiyuki Kuroda, a Honda spokesman in Tokyo, said the reason for the strike at Honda Lock (Guangdong) Co was unclear.

However, progress was made at another factory supplying Honda exhaust systems, with managers and striking workers reaching an agreement and resuming production late on Wednesday.

The latest walkout comes amid growing labor disputes in China's Pearl River Delta, a fast-growing and densely populated manufacturing hub home to hundreds of foreign-owned factories.

Honda spokesman Yoshiyuki Kuroda said the automaker expected no disruption so far from Wednesday's stoppage at Honda Lock's factory, with sufficient inventory for now.

The strike at Foshan Fengfu Autoparts Co Ltd, a joint venture between Yutaka Giken and Taiwan's Taoyuan Fuwei, started on Monday, just days after Honda settled a strike at another supplier that had forced it to halt all output in the world's largest auto market.

Details were not immediately available on the terms of the agreement between managers and workers at the exhaust factory.

A Yutaka Giken spokesman said negotiations with workers are ongoing, while the Xinhua News Agency reported that a team of 20 local officials and trade union leaders arrived at the factory on Monday to mediate.

Earlier, a worker surnamed Yang said workers were pushing for higher pay, compensation for having to shut down for about a week due to disruptions at other plants, and a quarterly bonus that was due in March. "I make around 1,700 -1,800 yuan ($249-$264) a month including overtime," he said, adding that he was not one of the workers on strike. "It's enough for food and board, but if I want to buy a flat it's definitely not enough. ... Living costs are getting more and more expensive."

The strikes come amid a broader rise in wages in the Pearl River Delta, which has created a need for more rational discussions between factories and their managers, said Huang Rurong, director of an employment center close to the affected plant.

"Step-by-step wage increases are a part of China's economic development. This is very normal," said Huang. "If you're a worker you will of course want more pay. This is very natural."

Foshan Fengfu Autoparts Co Ltd employs more than 600 workers. Most of them earn an average of about 1,300 yuan a month.