Vietnam hit by 762 strikes last year, union official says

http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20090111032308870

Sunday, January 11 2009 @ 03:23 AM CST
Contributed by: WorkerFreedom

Workers' strike at a foreign-invested company in southern Vietnam Vietnam was hit by a record 762 labor strikes last year, many of them in textile and footwear plants, as workers struggled with costs amid spiraling inflation, a labor union official said Thursday. The number was sharply up from the 541 strikes reported in 2007 and part of an upward trend in industrial unrest over recent years in the low-wage economy which has seen more than a decade of high export-led growth.



"High inflation made the lives of low-income workers more difficult," said a Vietnam General Confederation of Labor official, who asked not to be named. "The strikes were mainly for higher wages and benefits."

The Lao Dong (Labor) newspaper earlier estimated that companies in Vietnam were hit by 775 strikes nationwide last year, mostly in the industrial south.

Vietnam, after years of strong growth that reached 8.5 percent in 2007, saw its economic growth slow to 6.2 percent last year.

Consumer prices surged in 2008 – with annual inflation at 23 percent, and food prices shooting up by about twice that rate – squeezing the pay packets of millions of workers, many of whom earn around US$50 per month.

The Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs predicts that, amid the global economic slowdown, more than 150,000 Vietnamese workers will lose their jobs this year. Ministry officials declined to comment on how they calculated the figure.

Workplace disputes have traditionally risen before the Tet Lunar New Year, which falls in late January this year, when consumer prices go up and workers need more money and days off to travel home to their families.

http://www.thanhniennews.com/business/?catid=2&newsid=45285

I'd love to see some comparison statistics to show how many more strikes we have here in a free country with democratic principles....you know, in a FREE country with a huge population and rights for workers supported by democratically elected leaders...

Probably not against state-owned companies.

. in order for there to be solidarity, working people in this country need to have this information. I wonder how a nationwide solidarity movement can be formed to communicate with workers around the world. do unions here is the usa have affiliation with other unions in other countries? do our unions communicate with them? do our unions have an international "board" that issues statements of solidarity with other unions internationally? if not, that would be a strong movement to start.