Japan’s Toyota Motor said Thursday a brief strike this week by workers at a China parts supplier affiliated with the firm had ended and would not affect production at a nearby assembly plant.
The supplier based in the northern city of Tianjin had resumed production after workers agreed Wednesday to end the strike, Beijing-based Toyota spokesman Liu Peng told AFP.
The incident makes Toyota the latest of several foreign firms hit by a wave of labour turmoil that has seen Chinese workers demand better working conditions or pay.
Japan’s Asahi Shimbun had earlier reported the world’s biggest automaker told affiliates that an assembly plant also located in Tianjin which makes door parts may be forced to idle production lines due to the strike.
But Liu said the stoppage at the factory operated by Toyota-affiliated venture Toyoda Gosei and a Chinese company would have no impact.
He gave no further details, but the strike involved a small number of workers at a maker of rubber weather strips who demanded a pay hike, according to Dow Jones Newswires.
A Toyoda Gosei spokesman said the employees went back to work after being told the company would review their wages.
Toyota’s rival Honda had already been hit by labour unrest that has highlighted complaints about low pay and long hours for millions of migrant workers.
Honda offered a 24 percent pay rise to staff at its main parts factory while employees at a plant making car locks and key sets resumed work this week after agreeing to an undisclosed increase.
US fast food giant KFC, meanwhile, agreed to raise its minimum wage for employees in the northeastern China city of Shenyang, state media reported Thursday.
The company signed on Thursday what Xinhua news agency called its first collective labour contract in China, covering 2,000 employees in the city following pressure from a local trade union.
According to the contract, the company will set a minimum wage of 900 yuan (132 dollars) per month, up from a previous 700 yuan.
Taiwanese high tech firm Foxconn — which counts Apple, Dell and Sony among its clients — doubled staff salaries after 11 suicides among its Chinese workforce.
And Taiwanese handset component maker Merry Electronics Co. raised the basic wages of 7,000 staff at its factory in the southern city of Shenzhen by 17 percent to end a brief strike, Taiwan media reported.
