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Foxconn Gives Chinese Workers 33 Percent Pay Raise

Stung by labor shortages and a rash of suicides this year at its massive 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 a jump 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 has 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 jump from 900 renminbi a month to 1,200 renminbi, or $132 to $176. The minimum monthly wage in Shenzhen is 900 renminbi, or about 83 cents per 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, which is the world’s largest contract electronics manufacturer. Police say 10 Foxconn workers have committed suicide this year in Shenzhen. The company, which is based in Taiwan and employs over 800,000 workers in China, has denied that the suicides are work-related or above the national average, saying instead that they are the result of social ills and personal problems of young, migrant workers. Foxconn said Wednesday that the decision to raise salaries was not a direct response to the suicides. But Foxconn, which produces electronics and computer components for Dell, Hewlett-Packard and Apple, has come under growing scrutiny in recent years because of recurring reports of harsh labor conditions at its factories, including long working hours and claims by labor rights activists that the company treats workers like machines. Image: static.guim.co.uk. More…

News selected by Covalence | Country: China| Company — EthicalQuote link: Hewlett-Packard, Apple, Dell, Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. Ltd. | Source: The New York Times

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