At Least 15 Thousand People'S Strike In Nike Vietnam Factory

A Hanoi government official said Tuesday (1) that the Nike Inc., the world sportswear giant, launched a massive strike on Monday at a shoe factory in Vietnam.

The official and the company confirmed that at least 15 thousand workers took part in the strike and asked the factory to raise their salaries to cope with the soaring prices in Vietnam.

The Ching Luh shoe factory, located in Long An, Vietnam, was launched by the Taiwan business and invested exclusively in Nike sports shoes.

Huynh Van Xe, a labour department official in Longan Province, said the strikers asked the factory to raise 200 thousand Vietnamese Dong (12.4 US dollars) monthly, or about 20%, in response to the rising cost of basic living.

Huynh Van Xe said that in his memory, this is the largest strike in Longan province so far.

He also disclosed that "at present, the management only agrees with a monthly salary increase of 100 thousand Dong Dong".

A spokesman for Nike said in a statement that a total of 15 thousand workers took part in the strike, while Vietnamese officials said the total number of striking workers was about 17 thousand.

The The Associated Press said in a report that more than 20 thousand workers left the workshop and took to the streets to protest.

Agence France-Presse reported that workers strike is becoming more frequent in Vietnam.

Last December, another Nike Vietnam factory broke out 10 thousand workers' strike.

Compared with the same period last year, Vietnamese consumer prices rose by about 19% in the first quarter of this year, including basic daily necessities, such as the Vietnamese rice as staple food.

Nike spokesman Chris Holzcr said in a statement: "we recognize that price inflation has caused an impact and impact on the daily life of the Vietnamese people in Chris Helzer.

We strongly support workers' right to free association, and we hope that the current situation can be properly resolved soon. "

Nike also stressed that the Ching Luh factory paid wages to workers already higher than the minimum wage standard set by the Vietnamese government.

According to the minimum wage standard set by the Vietnamese government for domestic foreign companies, the monthly salary of local workers must be between 800 thousand Vietnamese shield and 1 million Vietnamese shield.

Nguyen Van Thua, a trade union official in Longan, said that in addition to asking for a raise, workers also asked factory canteens to provide better quality working lunches.

The factory has been producing sports shoes for Nike since 2002, employing about 21 thousand local workers, most of whom are young rural women.

The average monthly salary of these workers is about $59, which is about 14% higher than the minimum wage stipulated by the Vietnamese government.

But Nguyen Van Thua emphasized that inflation has made workers vulnerable.

He said: "when the company pays wages, it has complied with the relevant laws formulated by the Vietnamese government, but based on the increasing reality of consumer prices, the daily expenses of workers have been difficult."

Nike has worked with 50 Vietnamese factories. Nearly 1/3 of the sports shoes of the company are produced by these factories.

Holzcr said that the Ching Luh factory is one of Nike's contract contractors for sports shoes in Vietnam.

The company has 10 similar sports shoe manufacturing contractors in Vietnam, with an annual output of about 75 million pairs of sports shoes, of which Ching Luh plant accounts for about 12% of the total output.