Over a one-week period in mid-November, more than 10,000 workers in Shenzhen and Dongguan – the two leading export hubs in South China’s Guangdong Province – went on strike.

Some 7,000 workers demonstrated against an overtime work cut and relocation plans at a Dongguan-based Taiwanese shoe factory owned by Pou Chen which supplies footwear to Nike and Adidas. At another Dongguan-located large-scale shoe factory Yue Yuen Industrial Holdings – a major supplier for the sports brand New Balance – some 8,000 workers held a violent strike, blocking roads and overturning cars, according to a Reuters report.

Strikes have also taken place at the Hong Kong-listed underwear factory Top Form, where hundreds of female workers protested against a pay cut, and at Apple’s major keyboard supplier Jing Mold Electronics Technology, where middle managers complained about working late hours for which they were not properly compensated.

Geoffrey Crothall, web site editor of China Labor Bulletin (CLB), a Hong Kong-based labor advocacy group, commented that the recent intensification of labor unrest is the “most significant spike in unrest since the summer of 2010.”

The “summer of 2010” Crothall referred to was the time when a string of labor protests – involving over 2,000 workers – occurred at eight companies across the country owned by (or supplying) Japanese automakers, including Honda and Toyota.

The strike at Nanhai Honda – which triggered a series of labor protests last year – finally won workers a 33 percent pay-raise during that year, from the original RMB1,544 per month to RMB2,044. Earlier this year, the company took the initiative of offering another raise of RMB611 towards workers’ salaries.

For the time being, the state of the global economy coupled with high inflation (which simply increases livelihood pressures) in China, have been regarded as major contributors to the new wave of labor unrest. However, in general, employers should get more prepared for an increase in labor issues, as a younger generation of workers with a higher education are starting to gain a better sense of their labor rights.

It is worth noting that, in general, tensions in China’s labor relations are rising because of the increasing dominance of a new generation of migrant workers.

A recent CLB report listed a string of new characteristics the new generation of workers boast:

•    Better education;
•    Less experience doing agricultural work;
•    Higher recognition of an urban lifestyle; and
•    Increased access to internet and mobile communications

With these characteristics, the new generation of workers – now taking up 60 percent of the total migrant worker population – is generally less tolerant of employer abuse, low pay and poor working conditions, and are more likely to stand up for their rights.

The improved access to the Internet – which makes instant information exchange possible – can sometimes expand one single protest into broader industrial actions. Last year, a wave of strikes in China’s northern city of Dalian hit 73 enterprises and involved over 70,000 workers demanding higher wages.

The availability of various social networking tools has also helped workers to better organize protests. With these high-tech tools, they can upload real-time updates on the progress of strikes, enable reporters to track events, and have lawyers/labor rights activists to provide professional advice.

The emergence of China’s new-generation of workers has brought the country’s labor relations to a new juncture and is becoming an important lesson for companies to learn from. While Honda has had to make compromises in wages, and Gucci recently had to replace its senior staff at a store after being accused of maintaining sweatshop-like working conditions, the signal being sent is clear. Namely, the days when Chinese companies can maximize their profits through minimum labor expenditures are now fading away.