On Friday, hundreds of workers at Honda Lock, which makes locks for Honda cars in the city of Zhongshan, in Guangdong province, refused to start work and demanded higher pay and the right to choose their own representatives instead of state-sanctioned unions seen as subservient to management.

Xinhua reported on Saturday that a spokesman for Honda Motor (China) Investment Co. Ltd., the owner of the lock plant, said on Friday "the current inventory of locks can only last until Saturday and the company has yet to set production plans for any time after June 13."

It was unclear early on Saturday whether work had resumed at the plant. Saturday and Sunday are officially work days in China this weekend, ahead of a three-day public holiday.

A wave of labour unrest has rippled across some foreign-owned factories in China as a new generation of migrant workers presses for more of the nation's growing wealth.