Strike action rocked Yamaha Vietnam

illustration phto

More than 6,000 local workers from Yamaha Motor Vietnam  (YMVN), based in Hanoi’s Soc Son district’s Noi Bai Industrial Zone, staged a three-day strike demanding higher salaries and allowances, amid soaring living expenses.

The strike involved over 3,000 workers at YMVN’s zone-based factory in the first two days before drawing in 3,000 others from the company’s branches in Soc Son Industrial Zone and Ni town in the third day.

Workers said they asked the company’s management for a higher pay three months ago. However, their demands were rejected.

After the strike, YMVN reportedly added VND200,000 (nearly $10) to the monthly salary of those who had been working there for over two years. At present, the initial monthly salary for workers is VND1,650,000 ($82.5) and VND2,030,000 ($101.5) for those working for over five years.

A YMVN source said that all workers had already resumed their normal work.

However, such a big strike was said to have hurt the prestige of not only YMVN, but also that of Japanese firms in Vietnam.

“This is the first time I have known such a big strike at a Japanese enterprise. YMVN is a famous firm in Vietnam. Everyone knows it,” said Cao Ba Khoat, director of Hanoi-based law firm K&Associates Business Consultancy Company.

“Its strike has sullied not only YMVN’s prestige but also Japanese firms in Vietnam who have a good reput for well treating workers and almost having no strikes,” he added.

YMVN said on its website that the company’s business in Vietnam was coupled with society-oriented and humanitarian activities such as constructing kindergartens, contributing to funds for needy talented children and scholarship programmes and supporting natural disaster-hit people.

“The trade union at YMVN, which is in charge of protecting workers’ benefits, has worked irresponsibly. Trade union officials have stood by YMVN’s leadership to ignore  workers’ legal benefits,” Khoat said.

Noi Bai Industrial Zone and Hanoi Industrial and Export-Import Processing Zone authorities declined to comment on the claims when contacted by VIR.

Khoat said such authorities did not want to “raise dust” and did not want the image of the city’s investment environment to be damaged.

YMVN is a $37 million joint venture between Japanese-backed Yamaha Motor Company, which holds  a 46 per cent stake, Vietnam Forestry Corporation and Co Do Mechanics Factory with a combined 30 per cent share, and Malaysian-backed Hong Leong which contributes 24 per cent to the legal capital. Established in Vietnam in January, 2008, it manufactures motorbikes and motorbike spare parts.

Last month, 400 out of 748 workers at the Taiwanese-invested motorbike and automobile manufacturer United Motor Vietnam Joint Stock Company (UMV) staged a two-day strike to demand for better welfare and health-care insurance services from their employers, after they were suddenly fired without advance notice.