[olympiaworkers] Wildcat strike at Japanese electronics firm in Vietnam

Libcom.org May 9 2010

Workers at a Japanese-owned computer chip factory in Hanoi downed tools on
demanding a pay increase.

Earth Times reported that some 800 workers at the Katolec Vietnam
Corporation, began striking Wednesday 5 May after the company refused
requests for higher salaries, better motorbike parking and other
conditions.

"They haven't destroyed any company property," said Dang Thi Hien, an
office clerk at the industrial park. "They just gather in front of the
factory to protest peacefully."Wildcat strikes are common features of
salary negotiations at foreign-owned companies in Vietnam. But the number
of strikes fell to 82 in the first quarter of 2010, down from 122 in the
same period last year.

The police-run newspaper Cong An Nhan Dan said that workers were upset
when the company failed to raise their salaries in April, as had been the
standard practice for years.

A source in Katolec's human resources department, who declined to be
named, said the company argued it had already raised salaries in January
to comply with new government minimum wage laws.

Under Vietnamese law, strikes must be approved by local authorities and
the government-affiliated national trade union. In practice, virtually all
strikes take place without such approval.