A third strike at a Honda components plant broke out on Wednesday 9 June, with workers again demanding substantial pay increases and the right to elect a genuinely representative trade union at the plant, Honda Lock, in Zhongshan, which employs 1,700 workers.

Workers elected their own representative committee, with one member from each workshop, to engage in collective bargaining with management. The committee rejected management’s initial offer a 100 yuan per month salary increase and stayed out strike, briefly staging a demonstration in the streets of Zhongshan Friday morning.

In the Yangtze River Delta workers at a Taiwanese-owned rubber factory in Kunshan battled with police on Monday when they tried to break up a strike for higher pay and better working conditions. Several workers were injured and others detained by the police. At a computer parts plant in Pudong, around 2,000 workers halted production over a contract dispute with management. And in nearby Suzhou, labour experts told the Financial Times that there had already been several strikes this year and employers had expressed concern more strikes would follow.

Strikes and protests also erupted in central China, with 900 workers at a Japanese-owned Brother Industries sewing machine plant in Xi’an going on strike for several days demanding better pay and conditions before returning to work after management agreed to collective bargaining. Scuffles were reported between striking workers and security guards at a Taiwanese sporting goods factory in Jiujiang, Jiangxi. And a long-running dispute at the Tieshu textile plant in Suizhou escalated Thursday when negations between workers representatives and the local government broke down. About 400 workers staged a protest outside the main factory gate.