Honda China plant briefly halted over labour strife

TOKYO, July 9 (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co's (7267.T) export-only factory in China partially halted production on Wednesday and Thursday after a few dozen of the plant's 1,000 employees refused to return to work, a spokesman said.

"It wasn't an organised strike," spokesman Yoshiyuki Kuroda said. "A very small number of workers refused to return to their posts at one point on the two days, and that forced us to stop the entire line temporarily."

He said the workers were mainly seeking higher wages and improved working conditions. A compromise was soon reached, and operations at the 50,000 units-a-year factory returned to normal on Friday, he said. He declined to disclose the terms of the compromise.

The incident, while causing minimal damage to Honda, marks the first known disruption at a car assembly plant in China caused by worker discontent. Factories at Honda and several other car makers had been forced to halt production on and off over the past month and a half due to supply shortages caused by strikes at various parts makers. [ID:nSGE65N02Q]

The Honda factory affected by the partial walkout this week is majority owned by Japan's No.2 automaker, and currently builds about 160 Jazz subcompacts a day bound for Europe. (Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Michael Watson)