“Our parents have suffered from this cheap labor market and now they are getting old. Do we want to follow in the footstep of our parents?” asks an anonymous Honda worker in China in an internet posting explaining the motivations behind a stunning two-week strike that shut down Honda’s production across the country.
Strikes are not illegal in China, but they are usually crushed, hushed up, or settled so quickly few outside the immediate vicinity become aware of them. This action, to the contrary, starved Honda’s four Chinese assembly plants of key transmission and engine parts, set off a near-panic in the business press as investors fretted about the open show of defiance, and reportedly succeeded in winning a 24 pay increase.
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