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Political Space in the Achievement of Collective Labour Rights: Interaction between Regional Government and Workers' Protest

Abstract The year 2010 witnessed the outbreak of a series of strikes in Guangdong's automobile industry, with the first strike in Foshan Honda, which attracted the most attention. Many argue that Honda workers' collective action is a transitional signal indicating the start of a new era of Chinese workers' collective protest. The success of the subsequent workplace union re-election and collective bargaining seems to indicate the workers' achievement of collective rights. However, there has been little attention on how Honda workers' victory was associated with political opportunities at that time. Through a one-year in-depth study, this research explores the development of Honda workers' strike, and the processes of union re-election and collective bargaining. It attempts to investigate the “truth of the story” and the underlying mechanism which elicited the achievement of collective labour rights within the context of current Chinese politics and industrial relations. Arguably, the political space in accomplishing Honda workers' collective rights relied on the opportunities arising from the extent to which the local governments were willing to use their political structure to handle industrial conflicts. The research shows that the political space for Honda workers to defend their collective rights had shrunk after the strike.