The Honda automobile corporations, 本田 (Běn tián)，has made the headlines in Asian news as a rash of protests 抗议(kàng yì) have threatened to halt production in the mainland. The protesters, which have organized, and are bordering on unionizing, are fighting for an increase in basic wages, living stipends and more bargaining power against the majority foreign owned corporation that is in cahoots with seemingly corrupt local officials. Two days ago, protesters led a march down main street, but were turned away by police in riot gear. Many saw this as a good sign, expecting the workers to receive their doubling in pay come to fruition (on the order of 2,200 renminbi per month). It appeared momentum was gaining for the coalition of workers, until yesterday, when the New York Times published this article, which has stated that Honda is hiring on “scabs” or replacement workers at only an 11% increase to pay.

In the subsequent days following, Honda has been aggressively seeking lower cost workers, with fears that meeting the demands of the strikers will drive the cost of doing business out of China. The question is, whether or not this is a justifiable offense, or just business as usual (as the Honda Corporation tries to mitigate costs and increase profits). From a purely economical standpoint, the wages that Chinese workers are seeking is much, much less than what their Korean or Japanese counter-parts are earning, yet costs of living are much less in China. That being said, inflation and housing costs are sky-rocketing in China, thus preempting the call for better pay. If you’ve seen the working and living conditions in these massive “worker cities”, you know that they are deplorable, which makes me believe that the hold-out are mostly caused by corporate greed, mixed with local government corruption.

What concerns me however, is the fear of voicing an opinion (especially among striker leaders) by being jailed or attacked by local government officials looking to quell what they deem “uprisings”. Many strike organizers have gone into hiding, worried of a reprisal that could lock them away for years at a time, without being formally charged. Like many developed countries that went through their own industrial revolution almost a century ago, unionizing and seeking a fair wage can be a dangerous thing, both physically and economically. Chinese workers don’t want to lose their jobs, but clearly see this as an issue worth fighting for (hopefully without turning to violence).

There is a silver lining in all this, and that is that Chinese citizens are beginning to use grassroots protests and organizations as a mean to influence politics and economics. In a country where most demonstrations are state-run, and often tinged with rampant, government-directed nationalism, the recent spate of protests and strikes is a omen of things to come. Citizens are seeing power among collective bargaining and are seeking outside, independent channels for social discourse. Sure, Honda may end up winning this battle temporarily, but the war for fair living wages will continue on. What happens when the “scabs” start seeking higher wages? What happens when other factories strike? What happens if these pseudo-unions begin talking to other industries and other corporations? The seed has been planted, lets see what it grows into.