Challenges and Opportunities for Manufacturing and Labor in China: Evidence from the Automobile Industry

• In Event: 573 - Section on Labor and Labor Movements Paper Session. Labor Formations in the Global South

Abstract

In recent years, China’s manufacturing has been facing new challenges. On the one hand, owing to currency appreciation, rising labor and other production costs, a growing labor shortage, and adjustments of tax incentives, some foreign companies—especially those in labor intensive manufacturing—are reported to be seeking lower-cost locations in inland China and in other countries. On the other hand, aiming to move up in the global value-added hierarchy, the Chinese government has embarked on a three-pronged policy of encouraging low-wage assembly industries to relocate or expand in western provinces, outsourcing to low-cost production centers in other developing countries, and upgrading production and working conditions with the goal of branding Chinese products for national and international markets. Meanwhile, China has witnessed continuing rise of labor unrest in the context of rapid capitalist development and the associated commodification of labor. The auto industry is at the forefront of the recent wave of industrial expansion, restructuring, and upgrading, along with rising labor unrest. Drawing on documentary research, interviews, and ethnographic fieldwork conducted in seven auto assembly plants in different regions of China, this paper analyzes these recent trends with a focus on the implications for manufacturing and labor in the Chinese auto industry. Contrary to the prevailing view in the social science literature that discounts Chinese workers’ localized and apolitical struggles, the paper argues for the potential of this type of grassroots worker resistance for driving meaningful change in the workplace and inducing reforms from above.

Author

• Lu Zhang, Temple University