8,000 workers strike in Vietnam shoe factory
HANOI - About 8,000 workers went on strike at a Taiwanese-owned shoe factory in southern Vietnam in the country's latest industrial action demanding higher pay, an official said today.
Communist leaders and foreign businesses have voiced concern over the wave of wildcat strikes, seen as the worst in post-war Vietnam, that started almost three months ago in mainly Asian-owned plants around southern Ho Chi Minh City.
The latest dispute flared up in a Taiwanese-owned factory, said Tran Van Ngoc, chairman of the Hoa An commune's people's committee in Dong Nai province, 50km northeast of the business hub formerly called Saigon.
"The number of strikers in the Pou Chen Vietnam company reached up to 8,000 yesterday," said Ngoc. "The company gave the workers the rest of the day and today off to search for an early solution," he said.
According to the state-run Tuoi Tre daily, the workers went on strike because they were unhappy with their salaries.
The industrial disputes over pay and conditions started in late December in Vietnam, a country of more than 82 million people where dozens of foreign companies have set up plants to take advantage of the huge pool of cheap labour.
Unskilled workers in Vietnam typically earn about US$2 (US$1 = RM3.72) a day for work in factories that make footwear, textiles and other products for export.
Senior Labour Ministry official Pham Minh Huan has voiced concern about the strikes, some of which have turned violent, state media reported today.
"We need to limit the spread of strikes held across the country in the recent past as they have served to create an unstable environment for foreign investment," he was quoted as saying.
All unions in Vietnam are under the umbrella of the Communist Party and in principle workers need to seek authorisation 20 days before a strike.
Japanese officials have met President Tran Duc Luong to voice their concern about the strikes, a Vietnam government spokesman has said.
And the European Chamber of Commerce in Vietnam wrote a letter to Prime Minister Phan Van Khai in January, saying they worried the strikes could spread to European-owned companies.
Agence France Presse - March 15, 2006.
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