【英语中国】中国工人涨薪产生连锁效应

Electronics maker Hon Hai Precision Industry Co. will discuss with clients the possibility of raising product prices to offset planned wage increases for its employees, Executive Vice President C.L. Huang said.

Wage increases in China at Hon Hai and other companies have helped fuel speculation that companies could increasingly shift manufacturing operations from China to other countries.

A spate of employee suicides at Hon Hai and labor protests elsewhere have also led to international scrutiny of working conditions at factories in China.

Ms. Huang's comments, at a news conference Wednesday, came after Hon Hai Chairman Terry Gou played down the impact of the wage increases and said the company was accelerating automation to reduce its reliance on labor.

The comments also followed an announcement by the company's Foxconn International Holdings Ltd. unit that it would conclude price negotiations with clients in the third quarter to mitigate the impact of the wage increases.

Ms. Huang said the extent of the price increases will vary depending on the client and product, but that the company has yet to arrive at a definitive plan because the wage increases won't take effect until October.

Hon Hai, whose trade name is Foxconn, assembles iPhones and iPads for Apple Inc. and mobile phones for Nokia Corp.

In the first five months of this year, 10 employees at Hon Hai's 400,000-worker Shenzhen, China, operation jumped to their deaths in separate incidents, prompting the company to take a series of measures to improve conditions, including large-scale wage increases in June.

Recent wage increases in China have also affected other companies, including Yum Brands Inc., Honda Motor Corp. and Toyota Motor Corp. Labor costs this year have increased 20% to 25% in the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta, two major manufacturing regions, a spokesman for China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said earlier this week.

Hon Hai held a news conference Wednesday, a day after a worker fell to his death at a southern China factory of its affiliated company, Chimei Innolux Corp. Ms. Huang said that Chimei Innolux operates independently.

As part of the efforts to offset the wage increases and meet growing demand for its products, Ms. Huang said the company is evaluating as many as four expansion projects in China's inland regions.

Separately, in the country's latest instance of labor unrest, Xinhua reported that workers at a southern China factory owned by Japanese company Omron Corp. went on strike Wednesday, demanding higher salaries.

An undetermined number of workers at the factory in Guangzhou staged a walkout to pressure the company to raise their monthly salaries to 1,800 Chinese yuan ($265) from 1,300, Xinhua said, citing local sources. It said Omron supplies electronic parts to Honda and Toyota.

Omron's management is in negotiations with the workers, the people told Xinhua.

In a sign of official concern about the labor protests, South China's Guangdong province Wednesday reviewed a draft of the country's first law covering labor disputes and wage negotiations amid efforts to ease labor tensions in the country, according to another Xinhua report.

鸿海精密工业股份有限公司(Hon Hai Precision Industry Co.，简称：鸿海精密)的执行副总裁黄秋莲(C.L. Huang)说，公司将与客户讨论提高产品价格的可能性，以抵消拟上调员工工资所产生的影响。

Reuters富士康员工在工厂附近的商业区进行锻炼。鸿海精密和其他公司在中国大陆上调工资促使人们猜测，许多公司会日渐将制造业务从中国转移到其他国家。

鸿海精密发生的一系列员工自杀事件以及其他地方的劳工抗议活动，导致国际社会开始仔细审视中国工厂的工作条件。

黄秋莲是在周三的新闻发布会上说出上面那番话的，此前鸿海精密董事长郭台铭(Terry Gou)曾出言淡化工资上调的影响，并说公司正在加速实现自动化，以减少对劳动力的依赖。

随后鸿海精密旗下的富士康国际控股有限公司(Foxconn International Holdings Ltd.)发布声明说，将在第三季度完成与客户的价格谈判，以减轻工资上调的影响。

黄秋莲说，价格上调的幅度将因客户和产品而异，但公司尚未拿出最终方案，因工资上调要到10月份才生效。

鸿海精密使用富士康作为商标名，为苹果公司(Apple Inc.)组装iPhone和iPad，并为诺基亚公司(Nokia Corp.)组装手机。

今年前五个月，鸿海精密深圳工厂先后有10名员工跳楼身亡，这促使该公司采取了一系列措施以改善工作条件，其中包括6月份的大幅上调工资。鸿海在深圳共在40万名雇员。

中国最近这一波工资上调也影响到其他公司，包括百胜餐饮集团(Yum Brands Inc.)、本田汽车(Honda Motor Corp.)和丰田汽车(Toyota Motor Corp.)。中国工业和信息化部发言人本周早些时候说，中国两大制造业集中地珠江三角洲和长江三角洲今年的劳动力成本增加了20%至25%。

鸿海精密周三举行新闻发布会，此前一天，鸿海的附属公司奇美电子(Chimei Innolux Corp.)在华南一工厂的一名员工坠楼身亡。黄秋莲说，奇美电子是独立运营的。

黄秋莲说，鸿海精密正对可能多达四个在中国内地扩大产能的项目进行评估。这些项目旨在抵消工资上调对公司的影响，并满足市场对鸿海产品不断增长的需求。

另据新华社报导，日资企业欧姆龙公司(Omron Corp.)在华南一家工厂的工人周三举行罢工，要求提高工资，这是中国最新一起劳工抗议事件。

这家工厂位于广州，新华社援引当地消息人士的话说，工人们举行罢工向公司方面施压，要求将月薪从人民币1,300元上调至1,800元（合265美元），但罢工工人的人数不详。报导说，欧姆龙为本田和丰田供应电子元件。

消息人士对新华社说，欧姆龙管理层正在与工人谈判。

新华社的另一则报导说，广东省周三审议了中国第一部有关劳动争议和工资协商问题的条例草案，这是中国缓解劳资紧张关系的又一举措，它显示了官方对于劳工抗议事件的担忧。