Vietnam

By Hung Nguyen
BBC Vietnamese, Moscow

Three years ago, Cuong left his wife and two children in Vietnam and went to Russia in search of a job.

The young man from Hai Duong province thought he could make a good living as a garment factory worker.

Like many other Vietnamese illegal workers, he even changed his name - Cuong is an assumed identity - in order to avoid being detected and thrown out of the former communist state.

From Libcom - http://libcom.org/news/4000-workers-strike-vietnam-over-management-abuse...

Nearly 4,000 workers at a Taiwanese footwear plant in Vietnam have gone on strike to protest alleged ill-treatment by their bosses.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/media/ALeqM5g-5VKZDTshv4LzNvyGAjccK...

By JEFF BALLINGER

The current strike wave in Vietnam can be traced to a seemingly benign statement by Adidas officials last year, attempting to explain a sharp increase in profitability. Since the German shoe giant's acquisition of the Reebok brand, it gained new leverage over supplier factories. This predatory relationship with the mainly Taiwanese and S. Korean sports shoe manufacturers collided with a rising rate of inflation, bringing the near-subsistence wage to a level workers would not tolerate.

Rising prices mean that factory workers' pay doesn't go far
Thousands of workers have gone on strike at a Vietnamese plant that makes shoes for Nike, demanding higher pay.
Workers, who produce about 10% of the 75 million pairs of shoes made for Nike in Vietnam annually, want more pay, bonuses and cost of living allowances.