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From Xinhua via China.org.cn:

Over 1,000 workers went on strike Thursday over low pay and a tightened work schedule at a factory in south China owned by the European lingerie giant Triumph International.

The strike started Thursday morning at the Hainan Youmei Underwear Company in Haikou, capital of the southernmost island province of Hainan, with over 1,000 employees complaining about the plant's new policy that demands a faster work pace.

The recently unveiled policy requires employees to reach 40 percent in work efficiency to earn a pay bonus of 250 yuan (39 U.S. dollars).

At a salary of 700 yuan a month, workers say they can hardly make ends meet.

Wang Ruifang, a production line worker, said she has to finish her work on 40 pieces of underwear in 38 minutes to earn the 250 yuan.

The strike was triggered by a text message sent by the company's human resources department early Thursday to over 800 workers who had complained about the new policy.

According to protesting workers, the text stated that "workers do not need to work on Thursday and Friday, and they should wait for a company notice telling them when to return."

Workers interpreted this as a threat that they would be fired if they continued to complain.

The workers made several requests Thursday, such as a 250-yuan raise, shift changes, the elimination of the work-efficiency policy, and additional salary and bonus concessions.

A foreign employee who workers said is their boss declined to be interviewed.

The provincial trade union and local authorities have sent officials to help with negotiations between workers and the company.

This is the second strike at the plant since Triumph International opened it in 1992.

In November 2009, about 3,000 workers went on strike over low pay, bonuses, and vacation demands.

Also, from China Worker:

A factory owned by lingerie maker Triumph International AG (TRI) in the southern province of Hainan was hit by a lightning strike last week against the introduction of a new ‘employment incentive’ program and the threatening tactics adopted by management.

More than 1,000 mostly women production line workers stopped work, complaining of a “tightened” work schedule and “faster work pace,” according to Xinhua News Agency.

The strike at Hainan Youmei Underwear Company (海南優美內衣有限公司), owned by Triumph, was sparked by a text message sent by the company’s human resources department to more than 800 workers who had voiced complaints over changes in the work schedule. These set efficiency targets that workers must meet in order to earn a monthly bonus of 250 yuan.

Triumph is Europe’s largest maker of women’s lingerie and has an established anti-union record. Triumph managers in Hainan claimed the new targets had been agreed with “labour representatives”, but in China’s case this means stooge unions controlled by management appointees.

Workers told Xinhua that their monthly basic salary was 700 yuan a month, which is too low to live on, and they needed the bonus payments to survive.

Workers said the text message from the company stated that “workers do not need to work on Thursday and Friday, and they should wait for a company notice telling them when to return.” This was widely seen as a threat that they would be fired if they continued to protest.

The workers raised a number of demands during their strike, such as a 250-yuan raise, shift changes, the elimination of the work-efficiency policy, and additional salary and bonus concessions. Workers at the factory staged a strike in 2009, also against attempts to cut bonus payments (read report from chinaworker.info, 15 November 2009).

Clearly, these workers have developed a strong sense of solidarity and drawn lessons from their previous struggles about how to organise.

Union-busting company

Triumph International, headquartered in Switzerland, employs around 40.000 workers and has sales worldwide of $1.6 billion. The company is notorious for labour and human rights abuses. In December 2009, two Triumph unions filed an OECD complaint against the company for making thousands of workers redundant at its unionised factories in Thailand and the Philippines. The company justified these closures on grounds of the global recession, but it has expanded its operations elsewhere, including at a non-union factory in northern Thailand.

“When it comes to profit, Triumph International is so fast to extract wealth from us but when it comes to obligation and responsibility, they are now running away.” Isabelita dela Cruz, a spokeswoman and union representative from the Philippines.