Ford Russia workers resume strike over pay

ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - Workers at U.S. Ford Motor Co.'s car plant in Russia resumed their strike over higher wages on Tuesday after a two-week break, a senior trade union official said.

Workers halted the production line at the biggest foreign-owned car assembling factory in Russia on Nov. 7, but returned to work after the strike was halted by a court, which ordered the union to postpone further action until Nov. 20.

"We've made up our mind to stay on strike until our demands are accepted," union leader Alexei Etmanov told Reuters by telephone, just after the strike commenced.

The union resumed the industrial action as soon as the court order expired.

Shortly after midnight local time around 500 workers on the night shift had refused to pass the picket line, Etmanov said.

The workers have been demanding an increase in the basic monthly wage to 28,000 roubles ($1,143), up from 19,000 roubles.

Ford, the No. 2 U.S. automaker, said it would not accept the workers' pay claim.

"The demands raised by the strike committee, including higher wages of more than 30 percent, are excessive and should be discussed a lot more in detail," Theo Streit, Russian Ford plant general director said in statement.

Workers at the plant near Russia's second-largest city of St Petersburg staged a strike in February this year over pay and conditions and won concessions.

With Russian consumer prices already running at least 1.3 percentage points ahead of the government's 8.0 percent annual inflation target, factory managers across Russia are facing demands for higher wages.

Ford's Russian plant produced 60,000 cars last year, mainly the Focus model, and had planned to increase output this year to 75,000 cars.

The latest strike comes at a time of booming sales for foreign carmakers in Russia. Ford is among the most successful, with a total sale of 116,000 locally produced and imported vehicles in Russia last year.