Omron hit by China labour unrest

Another Japanese manufacturer has been hit by labour strife in Guangdong province as a wave of Chinese strikes that began in May refuses to subside.

The unrest is putting increasing pressure on Japanese managers to review the way they run plants in China.

Several hundred workers walked off the job at an Omron factory in Guangzhou, which supplies electronic components to carmakers in the region.

These include Honda, whose assembly plants in southern China suffered sporadic closures in May and June when they ran short of parts due to strikes at affiliated component makers.

Industrial unrest has hit a range of foreign companies in China this year as the rising cost of housing and other items has fuelled resentment among a new and more outspoken generation of migrant workers.

But Japanese companies, particularly in the automobile industry, have suffered the most frequent and serious labour problems, with workers at eight Honda and Toyota suppliers in China striking in May and June.

Several of those disputes remain unresolved, though the workers have mostly returned to their jobs.

The Omron strike came after what appeared to be several weeks of improved labour relations in the area.

It also came a day after Takanobu Ito, Honda’s president, defended the carmaker’s global practices, blaming errors at its Chinese subsidiary for the strikes.

Mr Ito said Honda had “taken steps” to remedy its problems in China, but did not give details.

Some analysts have blamed the relatively closed corporate culture of Honda and other Japan carmakers.

Japanese companies’ tight keiretsu relationships – traditional cross-shareholdings and interlocking business relationships – make them over-reliant on a small number of suppliers, analysts say.

Japanese companies have also been accused of being reluctant to promote Chinese employees to management positions.

Omron officials in Tokyo confirmed that a strike had begun at the plant on Wednesday morning, but declined to give further details.

They said the manager of its striking Guangzhou plant was a Japanese expatriate.

Honda representatives in Tokyo said they were unaware of any disruption at Chinese Honda production sites arising from the Omron strike.

Omron is an independent maker of electronic control systems used in everything from cash machines to railway turnstiles. Its Guang-zhou factory supplies other car groups including Ford.

According to Reuters, more than half of the 700-800 workers at the Omron plant walked off the job, demanding a 40 per cent rise in their monthly wage of Rmb1,270 ($187).

“We are not satisfied with the current salary,” one worker was quoted as saying. “We talked to management before but got no reply. That’s why we are on strike.”

One woman who has been working at Omron for two years said: “The cost of living in Guangzhou is rising, but our wages from the factory aren’t increasing at the same pace.”