Walmart and ‘Made in China’ are practically synonymous; Walmart imports some 70 percent of its merchandise from China. Walmart is now also rapidly becoming a major retail presence there, with close to two hundred Walmarts in more than a hundred Chinese cities. What happens when the world’s biggest retailer and the world’s biggest country do business with each other? In this book, a group of thirteen experts from several disciplines examine the symbiotic but strained relationship between these giants. The book shows how Walmart began cutting costs by bypassing its American suppliers and sourcing directly from Asia and how Walmart’s sheer size has trumped all other multinationals in squeezing procurement prices and, as a by-product, driving down Chinese workers’ wages.
China is also an inviting frontier for Walmart’s global superstore expansion. As China’s middle class grows, the chain’s Western image and affordable goods have become popular. Walmart’s Arkansas headquarters exports to the Chinese stores a unique corporate culture and management ideology, which oddly enough are reminiscent of Mao-era Chinese techniques for promoting loyalty. Three chapters separately detail the lives of a Walmart store manager, a lower-level store supervisor, and a cashier. Another chapter focuses on employees’ wages, ‘voluntary’ overtime, and the stores’ strict labor discipline. In 2006, the official Chinese trade union targeted Walmart, which is antilabor in its home country, and succeeded in setting up union branches in all the stores. Walmart in China reveals the surprising outcome.
Contributors: Diana Beaumont, coeditor of China Labor News Translations; Anita Chan, University of Technology, Sydney; David J. Davies, Hamline University; Nelson Lichtenstein, University of California, Santa Barbara; Scott E. Myers, Monterey Institute of International Studies; Eileen Otis, University of Oregon; Pun Ngai, Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Katie Quan, University of California, Berkeley; Taylor Seeman, Hamline University; Kaxton Siu, Australian National University; Jonathan Unger, Australian National University; Xue Hong, East China Normal University; Yu Xiaomin, Beijing Normal University
Inhoudsopgave
Introduction: When the World’s Largest Company Encounters the World’s Biggest Country
by Anita Chan Part One: The Walmart Supply Chain 1. Walmart’s Long March to China: How a Mid-American Retailer Came to Stake Its Future on the Chinese Economy
by Nelson Lichtenstein2. Outsourcing in China: Walmart and Chinese Manufacturers
by Xue Hong3. Walmartization, Corporate Social Responsibility, and the Labor Standards of Toy Factories in South China
by Yu Xiaomin and Pun Ngai4. Made in China: Work and Wages in Walmart Supplier Factories
by Anita Chan and Kaxton Siu Part Two: The Walmart Stores 5. Corporate Cadres: Management and Corporate Culture at Walmart China
by David J. Davies6. A Store Manager’s Success Story
by David J. Davies and Taylor Seeman7. Practicing Cheer: The Diary of a Low-Level Supervisor at a Walmart China Store
by Scott E. Myers and Anita Chan
Translation by Scott E. Myers8. Working in Walmart, Kunming: Technology, Outsourcing, and Retail Globalization
by Eileen M. Otis Part Three: Walmart Trade Unions 9. Unionizing Chinese Walmart Stores
by Anita Chan10. Did Unionization Make a Difference? Work Conditions and Trade Union Activities at Chinese Walmart Stores
by Jonathan Unger, Diana Beaumont, and Anita Chan11. Workers and Communities versus Walmart: A Comparison of Organized Resistance in the United States and China
by Katie QuanNotes
Notes on Contributors
Index
Over de auteur
Anita Chan is Research Professor at the China Research Centre of the University of Technology, Sydney. She is the author of China’s Workers under Assault: The Exploitation of Labor in a Globalizing Economy and Children of Mao: Personality Development and Political Activism in the Red Guard Generation and coauthor of Chen Village: Revolution to Globalization.
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