Chinese workers want own leaders-asserting individualism

“Strike at Honda plant the latest sign of labor unrest in China

By Keith B. Richburg

Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, June 12, 2010

BEIJING -- Labor strikes continued to spread Friday across parts of China, as newly emboldened workers pressed for higher wages and better conditions, posing a fresh challenge to the government and the country's only officially sanctioned union.

In Zhangshan, in southeastern China, about 1,700 workers at a factory that makes locks and keys for Honda Motors staged an unusual march through the city streets Friday morning, media reports and labor activists said.

The workers walked off the job Wednesday, demanding more pay and the right to elect their own union representatives. That was a direct affront to the country's official union, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.”