SHANGHAI, Jun – Japanese automaker Honda said its auto parts factory in southern China resumed full operations Wednesday after it offered a 24 percent pay rise to workers to end a crippling strike.
The walkout at Honda Auto Parts Manufacturing Co in the city of Foshan brought the carmaker\’s vehicle production in China to a screeching halt last week as its assembly lines ran out of key components.
The parts plant "has resumed full production today and is at normal conditions now," a Beijing-based Honda spokeswoman told AFP, after a partial resumption of work the previous day.
The spokeswoman said all of the workers due for morning shift at the factory showed up at their posts on Wednesday, although some of the staff are still dissatisfied with the pay rise offer.
Honda has said it is ready to give a 366-yuan (53.80-dollar) monthly raise to the 1,900 workers at the plant, taking monthly salaries including allowances to 1,910 yuan.
"We are not negotiating with these workers any more. This is our final plan," she said.
She said production at the automaker\’s vehicle assembly plants in China, mainly managed by joint ventures with Chinese partners, would remain closed on Thursday and the company had yet to decide when production would resume.
Labour issues in China have come to the forefront in recent weeks after a series of suicides at Taiwanese technology giant Foxconn, which counts Apple, Dell and Sony among its clients.
In an apparent effort to confront a tide of bad publicity, Foxconn has raised the wage of its staff by 30 percent, the company said on Wednesday.
Honda has a production capacity of 650,000 vehicles per year in China. The Foshan auto parts unit in southern Guangdong province – China\’s main factory belt – makes transmission and engine parts.
