SHANGHAI: About 16,000 workers at two subsidiaries of Taiwanese touch-screen maker Wintek Corp went on strike over holiday benefits this week in southern China in one of the biggest work stoppages this year.
A Wintek executive said the strikes started on Tuesday at subsidiary Dongguan Masstop Liquid Crystal Display Co Ltd and spread on Wednesday to Wintek (China) Technology Ltd. Each factory employs about 8,000 workers, said the executive who declined to be identified as he was not authorised to speak on behalf of the company.
The strikes ended on Wednesday and yesterday, respectively, and the company did not expect production to be affected, the executive added.
Wintek is a long-time supplier to Apple Inc, but it was not immediately clear who the factories’ main customers were. A Wintek Corp facility in the eastern city of Suzhou, near Shanghai, is on the iPhone and iPad maker’s list of 2014 suppliers, but not the factories in Dongguan.
An Apple spokesman in California said the company generally did not comment on supplier relationships beyond the list.
Six police vehicles were parked in the rain outside the gates of the Wintek factory in an industrial estate in the southern city of Dongguan yesterday, although there were no workers in sight.
A manager surnamed Wu said: “Things have been settled now. The workers are back to work.”
China has seen a surge in the number of strikes at its factories in recent years as the economy slowed and a worsening labour shortage has shifted the balance of power in labour relations.
Reuters
