How many workers are employed by Pou Chen Corporation?

The latest strike in southern Vietnam began Friday morning, when hundreds of workers blocked the entrance of the Pou Chen Corporation near Ho Chi Minh City. The Taiwanese-owned company manufactures garments for Nike, Adidas, and other American corporations, and employs 22,000 workers. It was not clear just how many had joined the strike.  Nguyen Minh Quang, the government-sponsored labor union representative of Pou Chen Corporation, says the strikers throw fermented shrimp paste on company security guards. The paste is foul smelling and hard to wash out. This strike, as with most others recently, did not have official backing from Vietnam’s only government approved labor union. The demands at Pou Chen Corporation included higher salaries, but the workers there also demanded the removal of one of the Taiwanese managers.