Nearly 10,000 workers who make toys for McDonald's Happy Meals returned to work yesterday after staging a two-day strike at a factory in central Vietnam to protest alleged unfair and abusive labor practices, officials said.
The strike, which ended after a settlement was reached on Thursday, involved about 9,300 laborers, mostly young women, said Phan Viet Thong, chairman of the Danang City Federation of Labor. The workers walked off the job on Wednesday and gathered outside the Hong Kong-owned factory, Keyhinge Toys Vietnam Co Ltd, Thong said.
The employees claimed they had been treated badly.
They alleged supervisors routinely humiliated and cursed at them, and that factory bosses refused to pass on their complaints to company leaders, said a man from Danang City Industrial Zone Management Board who gave his name only as Dong.
The company has agreed to give the workers a 10 percent pay rise, limit their working hours to 10 hours daily, with overtime, and also give them Sunday off, Thong said.
In a statement that was issued on Thursday, Oak Brook, Illinois-based McDonald's Corp said that the company "takes these issues very seriously. We have a strict code of conduct for suppliers based on our belief that employees deserve to be treated with dignity and respect."
McDonald's spokeswoman Anna Rozenich would not comment on specific worker allegations but said, "All the issues have been resolved, whatever they are."
She said the Danang facility produces only a portion of McDonald's Happy Meal toys.
The strike was widely reported in Vietnam's state-controlled media, which said the workers alleged that they were forced to work 12-hour days with no overtime and were allowed only 45 minutes for lunch.
They also complained that their wages were cut if they visited the restroom more than twice a day or if a visit to the doctor took longer than two hours.
"In the company, there is no water for workers to drink, let alone water to wash after the shift ends," a worker identified as Dang Thi Nhan T., told the Tien Phong newspaper. "Many workers have fainted during working hours."
In a statement, Y.P. Cheng, the owner of Keyhinge Toys, said the dispute had been resolved, but he did not comment on the workers' allegations.
The workers received a pay increase from 2,500 dong (US$0.16) to 2,750 dong (US$0.175) an hour, labor leader Thong said.
The company also agreed to issue more bathroom passes and to order supervisors to improve the overall factory climate, he said.
The strike wasn't the first labor dispute involving the toy company, the largest employer in Danang -- once the site of a large US military base and a popular holiday spot for US soldiers during the Vietnam War.
In 1998, Keyhinge Toys was accused of paying workers less than the government-mandated minimum wage and failing to set up a labor union despite multiple requests from the Danang City Federation of Labor.
At the time, McDonald's said there had been inspections at the plant, which opened in 1996, and that an audit by SGS Switzerland found the factory met Vietnamese safety regulations.
DEFENSE: The first set of three NASAMS that were previously purchased is expected to be delivered by the end of this year and deployed near the capital, sources said Taiwan plans to procure 28 more sets of M-142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), as well as nine additional sets of National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), military sources said yesterday. Taiwan had previously purchased 29 HIMARS launchers from the US and received the first 11 last year. Once the planned purchases are completed and delivered, Taiwan would have 57 sets of HIMARS. The army has also increased the number of MGM-140 Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS) purchased from 64 to 84, the sources added. Each HIMARS launch pod can carry six Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems, capable of
Authorities have detained three former Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TMSC, 台積電) employees on suspicion of compromising classified technology used in making 2-nanometer chips, the Taiwan High Prosecutors’ Office said yesterday. Prosecutors are holding a former TSMC engineer surnamed Chen (陳) and two recently sacked TSMC engineers, including one person surnamed Wu (吳) in detention with restricted communication, following an investigation launched on July 25, a statement said. The announcement came a day after Nikkei Asia reported on the technology theft in an exclusive story, saying TSMC had fired two workers for contravening data rules on advanced chipmaking technology. Two-nanometer wafers are the most
TRAJECTORY: The severe tropical storm is predicted to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday and Thursday, and would influence the nation to varying degrees, a forecaster said The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it would likely issue a sea warning for Tropical Storm Podul tomorrow morning and a land warning that evening at the earliest. CWA forecaster Lin Ting-yi (林定宜) said the severe tropical storm is predicted to be closest to Taiwan on Wednesday and Thursday. As of 2pm yesterday, the storm was moving west at 21kph and packing sustained winds of 108kph and gusts of up to 136.8kph, the CWA said. Lin said that the tropical storm was about 1,710km east of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost tip, with two possible trajectories over the next one
CHINA’s BULLYING: The former British prime minister said that he believes ‘Taiwan can and will’ protect its freedom and democracy, as its people are lovers of liberty Former British prime minister Boris Johnson yesterday said Western nations should have the courage to stand with and deepen their economic partnerships with Taiwan in the face of China’s intensified pressure. He made the remarks at the ninth Ketagalan Forum: 2025 Indo-Pacific Security Dialogue hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Prospect Foundation in Taipei. Johnson, who is visiting Taiwan for the first time, said he had seen Taiwan’s coastline on a screen on his indoor bicycle, but wanted to learn more about the nation, including its artificial intelligence (AI) development, the key technology of the 21st century. Calling himself an
RSS