Labor control regimes and worker resistance in global supply chains

Abstract

This article seeks to examine two inter-related dynamics, the relationship between the international dispersion of apparel production and labor control regimes, and the relationship between labor control regimes and patterns of worker resistance. The article argues that where apparel production has concentrated in the last decade has as much to do with labor control regimes as with wages and other economic factors. It suggests that there are three main labor control regimes in the sector: state control, market despotism, and employer repression. The article then argues that these systems of labor control are conducive to three patterns of worker resistance: wildcat strikes, international accords, and cross-border campaigns. The article explores these arguments by examining examples of apparel global supply chains in Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Honduras.

Keywords::

• apparel
• strikes
• resistance
• Honduras
• Vietnam
• Bangladesh

Notes

^1.Burawoy, Manufacturing Consent.

^2. The author thanks an anonymous reviewer for this point.

^3. Of course, wildcat strikes require a certain degree of tolerance on the part of the regime, as we shall see. Highly repressive authoritarian regimes would arrest anyone attempting a strike.

^4.Hammer, “International Framework Agreements.”

^5.Keck and Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders.

^6.Braverman, Labor and Monopoly Capital.

^7.Burawoy, Manufacturing Consent.

^8.Thompson and Smith, “Debating Labour Process Theory.”

^9.Pravda and Ruble, “Communist Trade Unions.”

^10. Ibid.

^11.Webster et al., Grounding Globalization, 52.

^12.WRC, Global Wage Trends for Apparel Workers.

^13.Harvey, The New Imperialism.

^14.Gill, “Right there with you.”

^15.Anner, Unholy Alliances; AFL-CIO, Trade, Violence and Migration.http://www.aflcio.org/Blog/Global-Action/Trade-Violence-and-Migration-The-Broken-Promises-to-Honduran-Workers.

^16.Silver, Forces of Labor.

^17.Lee, Against the Law.

^18.Anner, Solidarity Transformed.

^19.Scott, Weapons of the Weak.

^20.Perry, Shanghai on Strike, 7.

^21.Keck and Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders.

^22.Hammer, “International Framework Agreements.”

^23.Anner et al., “Toward Joint Liability.”

^24.Lorwin, Labor and Internationalism.

^25.Erne, Europeans Unions; Anner, Solidarity Transformed.

^26.Anner, Solidarity Transformed.

^27.Milberg and Amengual, Economic Development and Working Conditions. Apparel makes up a large share, but not all, of export processing zone (EPZ) production. Consumer electronics and other light manufacturing can be also found in EPZs.

^28.Abernathy et al., A Stitch in Time.

^29.Locke, The Promise and Limits.

^30.Anner et al., “Toward Joint Liability.”

^31. I have relied on export data to the USA because the US government provides exports in square meters, which is a more reliable measure of the scale of exports than price since some countries (such as Italy) export relatively less but at a high price; this distorts their true weight in the global apparel industry. However, the patterns depicted here are largely matched on a global scale. According to World Trade Organization data, which measure apparel exports in terms of value not volume, 38% of global apparel exports come from China (43% if we include Hong Kong). Bangladesh is the second largest apparel exporter, followed by Turkey and Vietnam. In general, exports from Latin America are lower to Europe relative to the USA, with Mexico, Honduras, and El Salvador as the top exporters from the region. http://www.wto.org/english/res_e/statis_e/its2013_e/its13_merch_trade_product_e.htm

^32.Better Work Vietnam, Better Work Vietnam.

^33.Gereffi and Frederick, The Global Apparel Value Chain.

^34.Anner, “Wildcat Strikes and Social Dialogue.”

^35.Human Rights Watch, Not Yet a Workers' Paradise.

^36.Anner, “Wildcat Strikes and Social Dialogue.”

^37. Author's interviews, Ho Chi Minh City, March and April 2014.

^38.Kimeldorf, “Worker Replacement Costs and Unionization.”

^39.Kerkvliet, “An Approach for Analysing State–Society Relations in Vietnam.”

^40.Tran, “The Third Sleeve.”

^41. Author's interviews, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, March and April 2014.

^42. Labor Code of Vietnam, Chapter V, Articles 63–65; Decree 60/2013/ND-CP.

^43. World Development Indicators, World Bank. http://data.worldbank.org/data-catalog/world-development-indicators

^44.WRC, Global Wage Trends for Apparel Workers.

^45.Polanyi, The Great Transformation.

^46.Acker, Honduras.

^47.MacCameron, Bananas, Labor, and Politics.

^48.Anner, Solidarity Transformed.

^49. Ibid.

^50.http://www.unodc.org/

^51. “Warren Buffett Confronted by Factory Worker.” www.youtube.com/watch?v = JxOYt5vpox8

^52. Author's interviews with labor organizers, San Pedro Sula, July 2009. See also: Hobbs, “Russell Factory in Honduras”; Russell Athletic, http://www.workersrights.org/linkeddocs/RussellPublicAnnouncement.pdf

^53.McCallum, Global Unions, Local Power.

Additional information

Funding

I would like to thank the College of the Liberal Arts at Penn State University for the funding that made field research in Central America and Asia possible.

Notes on contributors

Mark Anner

Mark Anner is an Associate Professor of labor and employment relations at The Pennsylvania State University, and he is the Director for the Center for Global Workers’ Rights. His publications include Solidarity Transformed: Labor Responses to Globalization and Crisis in Latin America (Cornell University Press, 2011).