Geoffrey Crothall says the HIT port workers' strike can be resolved, if the company is willing to negotiate with the dockers' union representatives on behalf of its contractors

The suicide nets are still there. Foxconn, the giant electronics manufacturing subcontractor, installed them in 2010, a year when fourteen workers died after jumping from the ledges and windows of crowded dormitories. In addition to the wide mesh nets, stretched low over the streets of Foxconn’s company towns, the corporation has twenty-four-hour “care centers,” “no suicide agreements,” and a psychological test to screen out potentially suicidal workers, charged to the job applicant. It has raised wages significantly, but only in the face of runaway inflation, steep hikes in the minimum wage, and mounting worker unrest. Media attention and pressure from Apple, one of its main customers, backed up by a program of regular factory audits, seem to be driving incremental improvements in working conditions.

Around 100 production line workers at the Nanhai Honda automotive plant, scene of a groundbreaking strike in the summer of 2010, staged another strike on the evening of 18 March after management and the trade union announced a new pay deal, workers told CLB.

China's officially sanctioned trade unions do little to improve the country's battalions of manufacturing workers. Recently that has started to change with some workers winning improvements in pay and conditions. Jim Middleton speaks with Han Dongfang, an advocate for workers' rights in China.