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Strike and changing workplace relations in a Chinese global factory
Author(s) -
Chan Chris KingChi
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
industrial relations journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.525
H-Index - 3
eISSN - 1468-2338
pISSN - 0019-8692
DOI - 10.1111/j.1468-2338.2008.00513.x
Subject(s) - factory (object oriented programming) , capitalism , china , context (archaeology) , power (physics) , state (computer science) , politics , sociology , political economy , political science , economy , economics , law , history , physics , archaeology , algorithm , quantum mechanics , computer science , programming language
This article engages with the debate around global capitalism and labour politics in the context of China. Data were drawn from fieldwork on a Taiwanese‐invested factory, where a strike was staged in 2004 spreading from one department to the whole factory. After it ended, the protest encouraged further struggles in the factory and inspired workers in other factories. While the original‐place‐based networks and their attached gangsters had previously divided and pacified workers, the function of place‐based networks and gangsters were dramatically changed in favour of the workers' interests during the strike. The author further argues that the expansion of capitalism in China has raised the marketplace and workplace power of workers but their associational power is impeded by the state socialist legacy.