Hitherto unknown on the flourishing Chinese industrial scene, labour strikes suddenly appear to be on the rise with 900 workers in Japan's equipment maker Brother striking work to demand higher wages, close on the heels of trouble in Foxconn and Honda.
Workers at the two sewing machine plants of Brother in northwest China who went on strike on June 3 resumed production after the company announced a pay rise.
The company agreed to increase workers' monthly wages by 20 per cent, official Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.
Overtime pay would also be adjusted, said a spokesman with Xi'an High-tech Park's administration committee.
The workers of Brother Sewing Machine (Xi'an) Co Ltd started to strike demanding a monthly pay rise of 1,000 yuan ($146.4), the spokesman said.
However, the company initially considered the amount "unacceptable" and workers returned to work after prolonged negotiations, he said.
Workers also demanded extra pay for overtime work that exceeded the legal maximum limit. On average, each worker does 50 hours overtime per month, more than the 36-hour limit stipulated by China's labour law.
The spate of worker suicides in Taiwanese company Foxconn and Honda in the recent weeks changed placid and disciplined Chinese labour force into an assertive lot demanding salary hikes and improvement in working conditions in view of the spiralling cost of living.
Foxconn, which manufactures goods for a host of companies like Dell, iPhone,, Sony and Nokia announced a 70 per pay hike for its four lakh employees with a rider that it would pass on the extra expenditure to the companies for whom it manufactures high end products.
Honda has announced a pay hike of 24 per cent to its employees who after lot of persuasion by local authorities joined work. Seeing the strikes spreading, all most all the local government in China announced increase in minimum wagers fixing it as 1000 Yuan ($147).
Reports here said several companies which were looking at across the board wager revisions looked to shift their industries to India, Indonesia and Vietnam.
But analysts here say mass shifting of industries to another countries were unlikely as China is well supported by excellent infrastructure and supply chain network.
Also Chinese workers were regarded as well disciplined compared to their colleagues in rest of Asia.
