Nearly 5,000 factory workers have gone on strike at a Japanese company in the port city of Hai Phong, about 100 kilometres southeast of Hanoi, a company excecutive said Thursday February 14. The employees of Yazaki Hai Phong Vietnam Co, which produces electrical wiring for cars, began a wildcat strike Wednesday morning, demanding higher salaries and shorter hours, according to Dao Xuan Thu, chair of the company's chapter of the official state-run trade union.
"The workers are claiming that the salary they are paid is not enough to live on," Thu said. "Some of them claim they have to work two shifts a day."
Thu said the minimum monthly salary at the company is 1.2 million dong (about 75 dollars), among the highest of any company in the industrial park where it is located.
"They haven't returned to work today and I don't know yet when they will," Thu said.
Vietnam's government-affiliated trade union generally plays a mediating role between management and workers, rather than leading strikes.
City labour officials and representatives of the company are meeting to try to resolve the strike.
More than 10,000 Vietnamese went on strike last month, mostly in southern provinces.
The period around Tet, the lunar New Year, which fell on February 7, has become a flashpoint for strikes in recent years.
Vietnamese face extra expenses for holiday gifts and travel, as well as rapid inflation, which ran at over 10% in 2007.
Vietnam's official trade union says there were 541 strikes nationwide last year, involving 350,000 workers. Most of the strikes occurred at foreign-invested enterprises.
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