Production at a Honda components factory in China remained stalled yesterday, in spite of the company's offer of a 24 per cent wage increase to striking workers.

The Japanese carmaker said most of the 1,800-strong workforce at its transmission plant in Foshan, a factory town in southern Guangdong province, had accepted the wage increase. But some workers insisted their industrial action was continuing, while others said they would return to the plant but refuse to work once there.

“The strike is still on,” said one worker. “There will be more negotiations today.”

The strike, which began last week, has also closed Honda's car plants in nearby Guangzhou, the provincial capital, and Wuhan in central China. Honda's offer would raise average monthly salaries at the factory to Rmb1,900 ($280). Workers had been pressing for as much as Rmb2,500.

Strikes at large multinational companies are rare in China, where independent union activity is usually suppressed by the government.

Tensions have been mounting in recent days, with scuffles breaking out on Monday between striking workers and representatives of the government-sanctioned All China Federation of Trade Unions. Honda workers, who have complained that the ACFTU does not represent them and is aligned with management, have been pressing for the right to elect their own union leaders.

Han Dongfang, founder of the Hong Kong-based China Labour Bulletin, warned that the Foshan strike had entered a dangerous phase.

“Now is not the time to fan the flames,” said Mr Han, who was once imprisoned by the Chinese government for his efforts to establish an independent union during the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests. “The more they push, the more likely the government and the police will get involved.”

Mr Han said the workers' best option was to accept Honda's offer and lie low. Reflecting the government's nervousness about the escalating situation, local media outlets have been ordered to rein in coverage.

“The government has banned us from doing any more reporting on this strike,” said one Chinese journalist who has spent much of the past week camped outside the factory's gates.

Although it is now muted, earlier local media reports about the strike have inspired sympathetic discussions in internet chat rooms and morale-boosting music videos showing protest footage of Honda's uniformed employees.