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The wildcat strike of more than 200 workers from a company in the central Quang Ngai Province escalated on Thursday.

Since Thursday morning, around 1,300 South Korean-owned Doosan Vina Company employees, gathered in front of the company office in the Dung Quat Economic Zone to emphasize their demand for proper payment of allowances.

Workers first walked off the job on Monday, saying Doosan Vina had not honored its promise to pay a range of allowances and hand out pay rises to employees once they’d completed four months of service.

“The company’s payment policies are inconsistent,” one worker said.

Workers hired by the company, which makes cranes, pressure tanks and filtering devices, during its first days of operation are paid more than those hired later, the workers said. The workers are also complaining about the many insults and beatings they’ve suffered at work.

Jae Young Kim, the company deputy director, told Quang Ngai authorities Thursday the language barrier had caused many misunderstandings between management and the workers. Kim admitted the company had made some errors with bonus payments but only in a few cases. He said the company had not awarded pay rises because some workers were not skilled enough while others were still interns. The first workers were recruited carefully while those put on later were not, he said. The company was initially seeking senior and skilled workers and so offered higher salaries as an incentive, he said.

The workers, however, disagreed with the deputy director and said they were continuing the strike.

Meanwhile, labor protection and union development were the focus of a two-day conference held by the Vietnam General Congrederation of Labor and the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Ho Chi Minh City Thursday.

Vietnamese workers in private companies often lack of confidence in labor unions and go on strike spontaneously every time they feel their rights have been infringed, Jan-Min Sunoo, head consultant of ILO -Vietnam Labor Relationship project, told the conference.

Sunoo stressed the importance of negotiation, which is used in many other countries to protect laborers, but was not popular in Vietnam.

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More wildcats in Vietnamese garment industry

Some 2,000 workers at two foreign-owned companies have gone on strike, demanding better pay and allowances, company and union officials said Friday.

More than 1,400 workers at Valley View Vietnam, a Taiwanese-owned garment company based in the central city of Danang, have been on strike since Thursday, demanding a monthly petrol allowance of 100,000 dong (6 dollars) and an increase in their daily meal allowance.

14,000 workers strike in Vietnam

Nearly 14,000 workers at a South Korean footwear company in Vietnam have gone on strike to demand higher salaries, blaming the action on rising consumer prices.

The workers of Hwa Seung Vina in southern Dong Nai province stopped work Saturday, asking company leaders to raise their incomes by at least 300,000 dong (18 dollars), said Tuoi Tre daily newspaper.

The management of the company, which produces shoes for export, offered to raise workers’ salary by 200,000 dong (12 dollars) but the compromise did not work, the paper said.

6,000 workers wildcat in Vietnam
On 3 July, some 6,000 workers at a Vietnam-based plant owned by textile manufacturer the Chutex Group went on strike over pay levels.

The strike, which took place in the Song Than II Industrial Zone in the southern province of Binh Duong, asked the company’s management to raise basic salaries by 15 per cent, and provide workers with accommodation and transportation costs. It was reported that the workers’ current salaries are too low to cope with the country’s high inflation.

Vietnam: 330 illegal strikes in six months

A total of 330 strikes have been recorded so far this year and all of them were illegal because they were not led by the trade union and didn’t follow the law, reported the Vietnam National Confederation of Labour at a conference in Hanoi on June 16-17.

The confederation’s Vice Chairman, Mai Duc Chinh, said that under the current regulations, only grassroots trade unions have the right to organise strikes, but this regulation is unrealistic because there is no mechanism to protect trade union leaders and most employers don’t positively cooperate with trade unions.

Inflation provokes more strikes in Vietnam
An inflation rate of as high as 23% has provoked more walkouts in Vietnam’s manufacturing industry.

Over 1,000 workers walked out of a Panasonic factory in Hanoi over the weekend demanding higher pay. This came in the wake of a strike by 5,000 at a shoe factory in Hai Phong City last month.

More shoe factory strikes in Vietnam
Two more shoe factories in Vietnam were on strike this month, as 4,000 workers walked out in Ho Chi Minh City while 3,000 struck at a Taiwanese owned factory in southern Long An province.

Rising food and consumer goods prices have led to a wave of strikes across Vietnam. The strike at Long An follows a strike and lockout of 17,000 workers in the same province last month.

Nike plant remains closed following strike in Vietnam

Following a 17,000 strong strike for higher pay, the Taiwanese-owned plant has locked out workers since Wednesday after violence broke out during the return to work.

The strike began when workers walked out of the Ching Luh factory in the southern Long An province on April 1, demanding a wage increase of 22%. A return to work negotiated by trade union officials after two days saw the majority of workers return to the factory, although the terms agreed to by the union amount to an increase of only 10%.

5,000 auto-workers on wildcat in Vietnam
More than 5,000 workers in Hai Phong City, 60 miles south east of Hanoi began a strike yesterday.

Yazaki Haiphong Vietnam Co, a Japanese car-part manufacturer, is based in Nomura Industrial Park, where 2,000 workers from different companies were on strike earlier this month for similar grievances. Wages were increased in January, but pensions and bonuses were cut

5 December, 2008 – 19:50  libcom.org