Hanoi - Thousands of workers have gone on strike in Vietnam, demanding higher wages to match the rising cost of living after inflation surged 27 per cent year-on-year last month, the Vietnamese media reported yesterday.
Nearly 5,000 labourers downed tools from Friday at the Kingmaker footwear plant in the Vietnam-Singapore industrial zone in southern Binh Duong province near Ho Chi Minh City, reported the Lao Dong (Labour) newspaper.
The workers at the Hong Kong-invested plant demanded a raise in salaries, now about one million dong (S$82) per month, and an improvement in the quality of their canteen lunches, the newspaper reported.
More than 1,000 workers have also been on strike since Thursday at a South Korean factory in Long An province, said the Thanh Nien daily.
Workers have been hit hard by double-digit inflation, worsened by a recent 31 per cent petrol price hike which has driven up the costs of other goods and services.
Taxi fares rose 15 to 25 per cent in Ho Chi Minh City last week.
Fishermen in many provinces have been badly affected by rising fuel prices and some have kept their boats docked in harbour rather than venture out to sea.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung has instructed the finance and agriculture ministries to provide temporary aid of more than US$70 million (S$96 million) to support fishermen in 27 coastal provinces, media reports said.
Mr Hoang Ngoc Thanh, the vice-chairman of the Vietnam Labour Federation, said that workers' salaries were too low and many faced difficulties meeting costs for rent and health care, reported the Tien Phong daily.
The federation will submit a proposal this month to the powerful Politburo to raise the national minimum wage, Mr Thanh was quoted as saying.
Vietnam raised the minimum wage on Jan 1 to 540,000 dong for state employees, 620,000 dong for workers in state-owned companies and between 710,000 and one million dong for workers in foreign-invested enterprises.
