BRIEFS - Honda strike ends with pay hike

• Honda strike ends with pay hike

BEIJING (AP):

Striking workers at a factory in China that supplies Honda Motor Company went back to work last Thursday after agreeing to a 47 per cent pay hike, an employee said.

The strike at the Atsumitec Co factory in the southern city of Foshan in Guangdong province near Hong Kong came amid a wave of wage protests that have idled dozens of Chinese and foreign-owned factories.

Atsumitec's 200 employees went back after accepting a 500 yuan (US$74) increase in monthly salaries that start at 1,070 yuan (US$158), the employee said by phone from the factory office.

• Ex-GM worker, husband accused of stealing secrets

DETROIT (AP):

A former General Motors engineer and her husband conspired to steal trade secrets about hybrid technology and use the information to make private deals with Chinese competitors, according to a federal indictment unsealed Thursday.

Shanshan Du and Yu Qin were indicted on conspiracy, fraud and other charges. They had been under scrutiny for years and were charged in 2006 with destroying documents sought by investigators, a case that was dropped while a broader probe was pursued.

The indictment says Du, who GM hired in 2000, purposely sought a transfer in 2003 to get access to hybrid technology and began copying documents by the end of that year.

In 2005, she copied thousands of documents, five days after getting a severance offer from the automaker, according to the indictment.

• Ford to offer hybrid at gas model price

DEARBORN, Michigan (AP):

For the first time an American automaker plans to sell a hybrid car for the same lower price as its gas-powered counterpart, removing at least one obstacle for drivers who want a greener ride.

At a little more than US$35,000, the 2011 Lincoln MKZ sedan won't be cheap, but the decision by Ford to match the prices of the two styles could lead competitors to follow suit with future models.

The hybrid MKZ, debuting this fall and running on both gas and electric power, will be a bargain after factoring in savings at the pump. It gets more than double the mileage of the traditional version in city driving.

While automakers won't reveal what they spend to install a hybrid system in a car, the final product usually costs several thousand dollars more than a gas-powered version of the same car.