The case of Foxconn in Turkey: benefiting from free labour and anti-union policy

Starting from the 2000s Foxconn invested in Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Russia and Turkey, implementing a territorial diversification strategy aimed at getting nearer to its end markets. This chapter investigates the development of Foxconn in Turkey where the multinational owns a plant with about 400 workers. A few kilometres from the city of \uc7orlu and close to highways, ports and international airports, the plant enables Foxconn to implement an efficient global supply chain. We illustrate this process by examining the company\u2019s localisation within a special economic zone, underlining the economic advantages derived from such a tax regime, bringing labour costs down to the Chinese level and obtaining proximity to European, North African and Middle East customers, thus lowering logistic costs. We also analyse the roles of labour flexibility and trade unions. In order to impose far-reaching flexibility on its workers Foxconn put in place a range of strategies, including an hours bank system, multitask operators and the recruitment of apprentices thanks a special programme funded by the state. We show how these have been crucial for Foxconn\u2019s just-in-time production contrasting its labour turnover problem. Finally, we highlight how the company has been able to implement a flexible working pattern, weaken the trade unions and undercut workers\u2019 opposition, thanks to favourable labour laws approved by successive governments in the past thirty years

Introduction

This book investigates restructuring in the electronics industry and in particular the impact of a \u2018Chinese\u2019 labour regime on work and employ - ment practices in electronics assembly in Europe.1 Electronics is an extremely dynamic sector, characterized by an ever-changing organi - zational structure, as well as cut-throat competition, particularly in manufacturing. Located primarily in East Asia, electronics assembly has become notorious for poor working conditions, low unionisation and authoritarian labour relations. However, hostile labour relations and topdown HR policies are not unique to East Asia. They have become associated with the way the sector is governed more broadly, with a number of Western companies also coming to rely on such practices

Flexible workforces and low profit margins: electronics assembly between Europe and China

This book investigates restructuring in the electronics industry and in particular the impact of a \u2018Chinese\u2019 labour regime on work and employ - ment practices in electronics assembly in Europe.1 Electronics is an extremely dynamic sector, characterized by an ever-changing organi - zational structure, as well as cut-throat competition, particularly in manufacturing. Located primarily in East Asia, electronics assembly has become notorious for poor working conditions, low unionisation and authoritarian labour relations. However, hostile labour relations and topdown HR policies are not unique to East Asia. They have become associated with the way the sector is governed more broadly, with a number of Western companies also coming to rely on such practices

From labour migration to labour mobility?:The return of the multinational worker in Europe

There is currently a large knowledge gap about intra-European labour migration. Commentators are caught up in a debate over whether such movement is best understood in terms of social dumping and hence a race to the bottom, or in terms of business opportunities and benefits for firms, states and mobile workers. The argument put forward in this article is that both approaches are inadequate in that they focus attention on a linear east-to-west Europe movement and discuss it from the vantage point of the state, businesses and trade unions in the country of destination. In order to gain a clearer understanding of emerging migration patterns in the enlarged Europe this article adopts mobility of workers as the analytical lens through which to examine the integration of labour markets as well as the tensions between capital, trade unions and labour to which mobility gives rise. Building on fieldwork conducted at Foxconn electronics assembly plants in the Czech Republic, the article suggests that the term ‘multinational’ worker is best suited to convey the experiences and practices of this emergent workforce. </jats:p

Catene del lavoro e delle migrazioni tra Veneto e Romania

Il paradigma della catena globale del valore o delle merci (Global Value Chain o GVC e Global Commodity Chain o GCC) sviluppata da Gary Gereffi et al. (1994) mira a spiegare le trasformazioni nella gestione delle nuove strutture produttive che si sono sviluppate nel corso degli ultimi trent’anni incorporando molti elementi dei processi economici. In particolare questa letteratura si è concentrata sui rapporti di potere tra le imprese e sul dispiegamento dei processi di ascesa lungo la catena del valore (Humphrey, Schmitz 2002). Alcuni autori hanno criticato questo approccio poiché tralascia il ruolo svolto da soggetti diversi dalle imprese, quali le istituzioni statali e internazionali (ad esempio l’Organizzazione mondiale del commercio), così come le influenze delle dinamiche sociali e lavorative nei processi economici (Smith et al., 2014). In questo articolo manteniamo un approccio che si basa sul concetto di produzione a rete globale, poiché riteniamo essenziale l’analisi sociale, politica e storica delle località in cui i nodi della rete si articolano (Bair, Werner 2011). Ci soffermiamo in particolare su due elementi cruciali nella produzione a rete globale: il contesto socio-istituzionale e le mutevoli caratteristiche della forza lavoro.Il focus sui soggetti che sono gli artefici delle istituzioni permette di comprendere in maniera dinamica l’uso e l’evoluzione degli apparati normativi e istituzionali

Locating labour conflict and its organising forms in contemporary times: between class and the reproduction of capitalism

The following article aims to provide a conceptually rooted introduction to the articles to be published in the internationally coordinated themed collection on 'Labour conflict, class and collective organization', an initiative which has involved four journals focusing on labour studies from different geographical angles and academic traditions: Economic and Labour Relations Review (ELRR); Global Labour Journal (GLJ); Partecipazione e Conflitto (PACO); and Revista Latino Americana de Estudios del Trabajo (RELET). The contributions to be published across the four journals are diverse, both in terms of geographical focus, disciplinary perspectives and sector of analysis.This diversity is very welcomed and represents a fertile soil for conceptual considerations, because it corresponds to the manifold forms in which labour conflict expresses itself in the reality of capitalism. What's the abstract unity of these concrete empirical realities, as Marx would have put this? In the following introduction we focus on two general theoretical issues we consider fundamental and mutually interrelated: a rethinking of workers' collective forms of organization within and beyond trade unions; the framing of these forms and of labour conflict in the broader historical dynamics of working classes formation. With this, we hope to provide a lens of analysis for the papers in the international special issue and more in general a methodological guidance to future studies on labour conflict

Massimiliano Mollona, Cristina Papa, Veronica Redini, Valeria Siniscalchi, Antropologia delle imprese: Lavoro, reti, merci, Roma, Carocci, 2021, pp. 220

Book review of Massimiliano Mollona, Cristina Papa, Veronica Redini, Valeria Siniscalchi, Antropologia delle imprese: Lavoro, reti, merci, Roma, Carocci, 2021, pp. 220.Recensione di&nbsp;Massimiliano Mollona, Cristina Papa, Veronica Redini, Valeria Siniscalchi, Antropologia delle imprese: Lavoro, reti, merci, Roma, Carocci, 2021, pp. 220

Labour mobility in construction: migrant workers’ strategies between integration and turnover

The construction industry historically is characterised by high levels of labour mobility favouring the recruitment of migrant labour. In the EU migrant workers make up around 25% of overall employment in the sector and similar if not higher figures exist for the sector in Russia. The geo-political changes of the 1990s have had a substantial impact on migration flows, expanding the pool of labour recruitment within and from the post-socialist East but also changing the nature of migration. The rise of temporary employment has raised concerns about the weakness and isolation of migrant workers and the concomitant risk of abuse. Migrant workers though cannot be reduced to helpless victims of state policies and employers’ recruitment strategies. Findings of the research presented here unveil how they meet the challenges of the international labour market, the harshness of debilitating working conditions and the difficult implications for their family life choices

International Migration and Labour Turnover: Workers' Agency in the Construction Sector of Russia and Italy

This article focuses on migrant workers’ agency through exploring the relationship between working and employment conditions, on one side, and labour mobility, on the other. The study is based on qualitative research involving workers from Moldova and Ukraine working in the Russian and Italian construction sector. Fieldwork has been carried out in Russia, Italy and Moldova to investigate informal networks, recruitment mechanisms and employment conditions to establish their impact on migration processes. Overcoming methodological nationalism, this study recognises transnational spaces as the new terrain where antagonistic industrial relations are rearticulated. Labour turnover is posited as a key explanatory factor and understood not simply as the outcome of capital recruitment strategies but also as workers’ agency

Les ouvriers agricoles étrangers dans l’Italie méridionale

Dans les provinces du Mezzogiorno, au sud de l'Italie, les travailleurs agricoles saisonniers étrangers, notamment les Africains, sont rigoureusement encadrés. Victimes d'une relégation spatiale et sociale, ils vivent à l'intérieur de ghettos, dans des mas abandonnés ou des constructions précaires. Dans ces lieux où les migrants reconstruisent un espace de socialisation, le rôle des intermédiaires, les caporali, est déterminant pour l'accès au travail. Soumis à différentes formes de pression, les travailleurs parviennent pourtant à s'organiser pour faire valoir leurs droits