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.
NEXT GENERATION: The four plants in the Central Taiwan Science Park, designated Fab 25, would consist of four 1.4-nanometer wafer manufacturing plants, TSMC said Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) plans to begin construction of four new plants later this year, with the aim to officially launch production of 2-nanometer semiconductor wafers by late 2028, Central Taiwan Science Park Bureau director-general Hsu Maw-shin (許茂新) said. Hsu made the announcement at an event on Friday evening celebrating the Central Taiwan Science Park’s 22nd anniversary. The second phase of the park’s expansion would commence with the initial construction of water detention ponds and other structures aimed at soil and water conservation, Hsu said. TSMC has officially leased the land, with the Central Taiwan Science Park having handed over the
The Philippines is working behind the scenes to enhance its defensive cooperation with Taiwan, the Washington Post said in a report published on Monday. “It would be hiding from the obvious to say that Taiwan’s security will not affect us,” Philippine Secretary of National Defense Gilbert Teodoro Jr told the paper in an interview on Thursday last week. Although there has been no formal change to the Philippines’ diplomatic stance on recognizing Taiwan, Manila is increasingly concerned about Chinese encroachment in the South China Sea, the report said. The number of Chinese vessels in the seas around the Philippines, as well as Chinese
AUKUS: The Australian Ambassador to the US said his country is working with the Pentagon and he is confident that submarine issues will be resolved Australian Ambassador to the US Kevin Rudd on Friday said that if Taiwan were to fall to China’s occupation, it would unleash China’s military capacities and capabilities more broadly. He also said his country is working with the Pentagon on the US Department of Defense’s review of the AUKUS submarine project and is confident that all issues raised will be resolved. Rudd, who served as Australian prime minister from 2007 to 2010 and for three months in 2013, made the remarks at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado and stressed the longstanding US-Australia alliance and his close relationship with the US Undersecretary
‘WORLD WAR III’: Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene said the aid would inflame tensions, but her amendment was rejected 421 votes against six The US House of Representatives on Friday passed the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for fiscal 2026, which includes US$500 million for Taiwan. The bill, which totals US$831.5 billion in discretionary spending, passed in a 221-209 vote. According to the bill, the funds for Taiwan would be administered by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency and would remain available through Sept. 30, 2027, for the Taiwan Security Cooperation Initiative. The legislation authorizes the US Secretary of Defense, with the agreement of the US Secretary of State, to use the funds to assist Taiwan in procuring defense articles and services, and military training. Republican Representative