This morning, the media, at home and abroad, reports on the negotiation between Honda management and the workers. The Cajing website quoted Professor Chang Kai from the School of Labor and Human Resources of the Chinese People’s University, and who is appointed by the workers’ delegates as their legal advisor, by saying that “the negotiation is concluded successfully! The management agreed to raise the workers’ wages 35% from the current level, which is approximately an increase of 500 yuan. Both parties have signed an agreement.”

On June 3, the workers representatives contacted Professor Chang Kai, and on June 4, he formally agreed to act as their legal advisor, and in the afternoon rushed to Nanhai to join the negotiation. At 3pm, the democratically elected workers delegation started talks with the management, and had not ended until 10 pm.

Before the negotiation started, the management proposed a pay rise of 366 yuan for formal workers, while the latter demanded for 800. The agreement now reached is an average monthly pay rise of 500 yuan, with 137 of which is in the form of subsidies and bonuses. A regular front-line worker whose wages was 1544 yuan, it will be increased to 2044 yuan after the pay rise, a raise of 32.4%. The intern employees, whose number accounts for 80 percent of all employees, had already agreed earlier to a pay rise, in stages, of 634 yuan from the current level of 900, a raise of more than 70%.

The meeting spent most of its time to discuss the question of wages. The issue of seniority subsidies proposed by the workers delegation had not been discussed in full, and the workers delegation acknowledged that it can be picked up later after the reorganization of the workplace trade union. The workplace union chairperson also participated in the meeting. Some of the workers delegation said that the reorganization of the union is their main concern, and although it is a complicated matter, they will continue to press for this on the basis of existing legal framework.

China Labor Net
June 5, 2010