Don’t underestimate how significant the strikes currently going on in China are going to be. I think we will see them developing into front page news.
The Honda strike that had supposedly ‘settled’ is on again. And it is spreading to other Honda plants. The real significance is that the claim it was settled was made by the official Chinese Trades Union, which is just a party/employer front. It does not and has not for a very long time represented the actual Chinese people doing the work. It has been and is an official party aparatus for controlling labour.
These strikes and their resumption are a clear indication of how much control the government is losing over the labour force. Add that to the power the central government has already lost over the financial dealings of banks, regional governments and land speculators and you can see the shifts taking place within the power structures of China. I’m not saying the old power structure is broken or powerless. Far from it. But power is shifting.
Stikes are being organized and sustained by workers organizations which really do represent the labour force – rather than the interests of the government. These aren’t a rag-tag of students we’re talking about here. This is the work force. They are waking up to their own power. Feeling agrieved and cofrontational, radicalized even. Dangerous for the party and the employers.
The strikes are spreading from region to region, business to business and refusing to be told to go back to work by the official union.
And most important, the strikes are working. The labour force are getting massive (percentage wise) increases in salary. Small beer so far in cash terms. But if this continues to gather momentum it will change growth and profit patterns in China’s economy.
Expect confrontations. UPDATE – There are strikes at Taiwanese owned, Japanese owned and US owned factories. In one dispute 50 people were injured when Riot police were sent in to deal with the strikers.
hello golem,please may i ask does this mean china is a huge bubble ready burst with the huge expansions in its house prices exports etc?
Sure is. The bubble is housing/banking just liek the US and here. It is ties very closely to a housing/bank bubble in Australia.
The Chinese bubble won't be burst by these strikes. But if the bubble bursts they will add together to make for a lot of unrest.
If you want to know more about China you can find lots of China experts writing about it or just look back at a long line of earlier posts about China on this blog.