A strike of ‘unorganised’ workers in a Chinese car factory: the Nanhai Honda events of 2010

Lyddon, Dave; Cao, Xuebing; Meng, Quan; Lu, Jun

doi:10.1111/irj.12089

A strike of ‘unorganised’ workers in a Chinese car factory: the Nanhai Honda events of 2010

Lyddon, Dave; Cao, Xuebing; Meng, Quan; Lu, Jun

Authors

Dave Lyddon

Xuebing Cao x.cao@keele.ac.uk

Quan Meng

Jun Lu

Abstract

This strike in a Chinese factory of the Japanese multinational Honda in 2010 received worldwide coverage. A young workforce sustained an on–off strike, with varying numbers of workers involved, for 19 days. Academic interest has focused on prospects for collective bargaining and union reform in China. This article, using interviews with former strikers, and newspaper sources, analyses the strike process. The workplace union, as a constituent of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions and subject to the Chinese Party–state, was hostile; so the workers were in effect ‘unorganised’. Examples of non-union strikes in the interwar car industry of the USA and UK show the similarity of situation with the Honda workers. Hiller's classic text, The Strike, provides a surprisingly suitable framework for understanding strikes of unorganised workers. The strikers' vocabulary ‘framed’ their demands initially as injustice, but incorporated anti-Japanese sentiment and, then, dignity, in response to events.

Journal Article Type	Article
Acceptance Date	Dec 12, 2014
Publication Date	Mar 1, 2015
Journal	Industrial Relations Journal
Print ISSN	0019-8692
Publisher	Wiley
Volume	46
Issue	2
Pages	134 -152
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12089
Keywords	China, trade unions, strikes, industrial action, industrial relations
Publisher URL	http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/irj.12089