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Vol. 71/No. 48      December 24, 2007

 
On the Picket Line
 
Russian auto workers continue
strike against Ford
December 7—Members of the Inter-Region Union of Automotive Workers, which represents workers at Ford’s auto assembly plant in Vsevolozhsk, Russia, have been on strike since November 22. The company is using nonunion workers to continue production of the Ford Focus at one-third the normal level.

The workers are demanding a 40 percent wage increase, shorter night shifts, a formula for indexing wages to inflation, and triple pay for overtime. According to a column in the Moscow Times online, the Ford strike is “the first open-ended strike in Russia since President Vladimir Putin came to office in 2000.” The article explained that most strikes face legal injunctions and unionists face reprisals if they continue to withhold their labor beyond one day.

—Paul Pederson

Workers at Vietnam Nike plant
strike, win pay raise
Some 14,000 workers at a plant that makes Nike sneakers near Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam won a wage increase December 3 after a five-day strike. According to BBC News, the workers were demanding increased wages, bonuses, and a cost of living allowance. The average monthly salary is $62.

The workers reportedly won a monthly wage increase of $4.50 and improved food at the factory cafeteria. The plant, owned by a South Korean firm that contracts for Nike, produces 10 percent of the 75 million pairs of Nike sneakers made in Vietnam each year.

—Paul Pederson  
 
 
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