Tech manufacturer Foxconn raises workers' pay by 30% after suicides
By David Barboza
New York Times
Posted: 06/02/2010 08:19:33 AM PDT
Updated: 06/02/2010 08:52:31 PM PDT
SHANGHAI ? Stung by labor shortages and a rash of suicides this year at its large factories in southern China, Foxconn Technology said Wednesday that it would immediately raise the salaries of many of its Chinese workers by 33 percent.
The pay increase is the latest indication that labor costs are rising in China's coastal manufacturing centers and that workers are demanding higher pay to offset an increase in inflation and soaring food and property prices.
On Wednesday, Honda Motor said it had resolved a strike in southern China and resumed operations at a transmission plant there after agreeing to give 1,900 Chinese workers a 24 percent pay raise.
The Honda strike, which lasted more than two weeks, was a rare show of power by Chinese workers, who are not commonly allowed by the government to publicly strike and walk off the job for higher wages.
At Foxconn, the basic salary for an assembly line worker in Shenzhen is expected to rise from 900 yuan ($132) a month to 1,200 yuan ($176). The minimum monthly wage in Shenzhen is 900 yuan, about 83 cents an hour.
The announcement comes just a week after Foxconn's chairman, Terry Gou, visited its factories in the southern city of Shenzhen and promised to do everything possible to halt a spate of worker suicides and improve conditions at Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer.
continued:
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_15210279
New York Times
Posted: 06/02/2010 08:19:33 AM PDT
Updated: 06/02/2010 08:52:31 PM PDT
SHANGHAI ? Stung by labor shortages and a rash of suicides this year at its large factories in southern China, Foxconn Technology said Wednesday that it would immediately raise the salaries of many of its Chinese workers by 33 percent.
The pay increase is the latest indication that labor costs are rising in China's coastal manufacturing centers and that workers are demanding higher pay to offset an increase in inflation and soaring food and property prices.
On Wednesday, Honda Motor said it had resolved a strike in southern China and resumed operations at a transmission plant there after agreeing to give 1,900 Chinese workers a 24 percent pay raise.
The Honda strike, which lasted more than two weeks, was a rare show of power by Chinese workers, who are not commonly allowed by the government to publicly strike and walk off the job for higher wages.
At Foxconn, the basic salary for an assembly line worker in Shenzhen is expected to rise from 900 yuan ($132) a month to 1,200 yuan ($176). The minimum monthly wage in Shenzhen is 900 yuan, about 83 cents an hour.
The announcement comes just a week after Foxconn's chairman, Terry Gou, visited its factories in the southern city of Shenzhen and promised to do everything possible to halt a spate of worker suicides and improve conditions at Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer.
continued:
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_15210279