Toyota action ends amid rash of China strikes
WORKERS at a plastics parts supplier for Toyota in China resumed work yesterday, ending a three-day strike over pay and benefits.
The strike, at Toyota-affiliated parts maker Toyoda Gosei Co, had forced a stoppage for most of Friday at the Japanese car makers’ joint venture factory in the northern city of Tianjin, near to Beijing.
China has been hit by a rash of strikes at factories across the country over the past few weeks, mainly over pay.
The wage rises demanded by the factories would add little to the cost of products made in China, meaning the country’s role as a manufacturing base appears secure. But the outbreak of worker unrest presents a tricky challenge for China’s ruling Communist Party, which has vowed to improve workers’ incomes but is jittery about any protests.