More than 1,000 workers from a Beijing Hyundai supplier company went on strike Friday afternoon to demand higher wages. By 5 pm Saturday, some workers had resumed working following negotiations.
On May 21, workers from the Beijing Xingyuche Technology Company in Pinggu district (which makes car parts for Hyundai) asked for a 30 percent pay raise plus benefits due to working in high temperature and polluted conditions.
Workers told the Beijing Times that their supervisors had promised an answer within a week, but had not received one as of Friday afternoon, triggering the strike.
A driver for the company said that he had sent out only two truckloads of car parts to Hyundai factories between Friday and Saturday. “If our parts don’t get to the factories, they’re in trouble,” he told the Beijing Times.
By 2:30 pm Saturday, two representatives from Hyundai arrived to help resolve the situation. The two representatives reportedly promised to help the company’s employees get what they were demanding. Production resumed two hours later.
One of the striking workers told the Beijing Times that they had been promised a 15 percent pay raise and another 10 percent raise in July. “We managed to get high temperature compensation,” the employee said. “As for everything else, we’ll negotiate with the company after we establish a labor union.”
In mid-May, companies neighboring the Xingyuche supply company gave their employees benefits, leading to low worker morale at the supply company. Workers also complained about working from 8 am to 8 pm plus overtime on nearly every weekend. Before the strike, their salaries were 2,000 yuan a month ($292.8).