Workers at a Ford car manufacturing factory near St. Petersburg, Russia, have launched an indefinite strike, the chairman of the plant`s trade union said on Tuesday.

Workers stopped the Ford Focus production line at midnight (9:00 p.m. GMT) on Monday, demanding higher wages from March 2008, Alexei Etmanov said, adding that 1,500 of the factory`s 2,200 workers would take part in the strike.

He also said that the plant`s administration had limited access to the factory by blocking the electronic passes of the workers on strike. Factory administration has also called in riot police.

"At present about 250 people are outside [the plant]" Etmanov said.

The carmaker`s public relations manager Yekaterina Kulinenko also confirmed the presence of workers outside the factory fence.

She also said that, in line to the Russian Labor Code, the company would not pay wages for the walkout because unions had failed to provide management with 10-days` advance notification of the strike.

Workers who voted against the strike will receive two thirds of their wages.

In early November, the company`s workers held a 19-hour strike, taking action after management had repeatedly rejected pay rise demands. The court later upheld a suit by Ford demanding that the strike be postponed so that an agreement could be reached between unions and management.

Average wages at the U.S. auto giant`s sole Russian plant are about 21,000 rubles ($850) a month, according to factory administration.

A previous dispute between management and employees was resolved after a one-day strike in March 2007, when the plant administration made concessions, concluding a new collective labor contract providing higher wages and increased employment benefits.

Ford produces its Focus models in Russia, and plans to increase output from the current 72,000 cars to 100,000 cars a year by 2009. The carmaker also plans to launch the production of 25,000 Mondeo models a year.
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