JEP » Issues » Scaling Up? Transnational Labour Organising in Globalised Production » Global Production Networks, Latent Power Resources and (Constrained) Collective Worker Agency: Findings from a Nike Mega-Supplier in Indonesia

Global Production Networks, Latent Power Resources and (Constrained) Collective Worker Agency: Findings from a Nike Mega-Supplier in Indonesia

Autor*innen: Merk, Jeroen
https://doi.org/10.20446/JEP-2414-3197-38-2-84
Pages 84-107
Keywords: power resource approach, global production networks, Nike, mega-suppliers, trade unions, freedom of association

Abstract

This paper looks at the processes that constrain worker organising at Indonesia’s largest manufacturer, PT Nikomas-Gemilang, where 68,000 workers produce athletic footwear for brands such as Nike, Adidas, and Puma. The paper critically applies the power resource approach to understand labour relations and (barriers to) transnational worker contestation at this mega-supplier. The paper gives special attention to the power dynamics that surround the factory, including the role local elites play in undermining trade union rights. This case study casts significant doubt upon the degree of freedom of association workers enjoy at Nikomas. It argues that traditional power structures in the region where the factory is located in combination with a long history of union-busting and the existence of a legacy union has constrained the organising possibilities of the Nikomas workers. However, it also highlights a case of a successful campaign against forced overtime. This way, the article shows that even in highly globalised sectors, local context enables and limits organising possibilities.

Literature

Appelbaum, Richard (2008): Giant Transnational Contractors in East Asia: Emergent Trends in Global Supply Chains. In: Competition & Change 12(1), 69–87. https://doi.org/10.1179/102452908X264539

Baglioni, Elena (2018): Labour Control and the Labour Question in Global Production Networks: Exploitation and Disciplining in Senegalese Export Horticulture. In: Journal of Economic Geography 18(1), 111–137. https://doi.org/10.1093/jeg/lbx013

Bartley, Tim/Egels-Zandén, Niklas (2016): Beyond decoupling: unions and the leveraging of corporate social responsibility in Indonesia. In: Socio-Economic Review 14 (2), 231–255. https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwv023

BBC News (2012): ‘Nike agrees $1m overtime payment for Indonesian workers’. 12 January 2012. www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16522992, 25.4.2021

.
Brookes, Marissa (2018): Power Resources in Theory and Practice: Where to Go from Here. In: Global Labour Journal 9 (2), 254-257. https://doi.org/10.15173/glj.v9i2.3571

Brookes, Marissa (2019): The New Politics of Transnational Labor: Why Some Alliances Succeed. Ithaca and London: ILR Press. https://doi.org/10.7591/9781501733208

Caraway, Teri (2008): Explaining the Dominance of Legacy Unions in New Democracies: Comparative Insights from Indonesia: In: Comparative Political Studies 41 (10): 1371-1397. https://doi.org/10.1177/0010414007303094

Castree, Noel/Coe, Neil/Ward, Kevin/Samers, Michael (2004): Spaces of Work: Global Capitalism and Geographies of Labour. London: Sage Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781446221044

Coe, Neil/Jordhus-Lier, David (2011): Constrained agency? Re-evaluating the geographies of labour. In: Progress in Human Geography 35(2), 211–233. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132510366746

Connor, Tim (2002): We are not Machines: Despite some small steps forward, poverty and fear still dominate the lives of Nike and Adidas Workers in Indonesia. Report. Oxfam Australia.

den Hond, Frank/Stolwijk, Sjoerd/Merk, Jeroen (2014): A Strategic-interaction Analysis of an Urgent Appeal System and its Outcomes for Garment Workers. In: Mobilization: an international journal 19(1), 83-112.

Ford, Michele (2013): Employer Anti-Unionism in Democratic Indonesia. In: Gall, Gregor/ Dundon, Tony (eds.): Global Anti-Unionism: Nature Dynamics, Trajectories and Outcomes. Houndsmill: Palgrave Macmillan, 224-243. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137319067_12

Fichter, Michael/Ludwig, Carmen/Schmalz, Stefan/Schulz, Bastian/Steinfeldt, Hannah (2018): The Transformation of Organised Labour: Mobilising Power Resources to Confront 21st Century Capitalism. Report. Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, Berlin.

Hadiz, Vedir (2010): Localising Power in Post-Authoritarian Indonesia: A Southeast Asia Perspective. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

Harvey, David (2001): Spaces of Capital: Towards a Critical Geography. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Hidayat, Syarif (2007): ‘Shadow State’? Business and politics in the province of Banten. In: Schulte Nordholt, Henk/van Klinken, Gerry (eds.): Renegotiating Boundaries: Local politics in post-Suharto Indonesia. Leiden: KITLV Press.

Jonas, Andrew E. G. (1996): Local Labour Control Regimes: Uneven Development and the Social Regulation of Production. In: Regional Studies 30 (4), 323-338. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343409612331349688

Keady, Jim (2011): Victory at Nike’s PT Nikomas factory: A lesson in persistence. https://m.facebook.com/notes/team-sweat/victory-at-nikes-pt-nikomas-factorya-lesson-in-persistence/10150338862841379/, 25.2.2019.

Kumar, Ashok (2020): Monopsony Capitalism: Power and Production in the Twilight of the Sweatshop Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108764810

Mahmudah, Lillie (2013): Indonesian Nike Workers Win $1 M in Unpaid Overtime. SPN, Jakarta [unpublished document on file].

Marx, Karl (1976): Capital: A Critique of Political Economy. London: Penguin.

Masaaki, Okamoto/Hamid, Abdul (2008): Jawara in Power 1999-2007. In: Indonesia 86 (October), 109-138.

Merk, Jeroen (2008): Restructuring and Conflict in the Global Athletic Footwear Industry. In: Taylor, Marcus (ed.): Global Economy Contested: Power and Conflict across the International Division of Labour. Rethinking globalizations. New York: Routledge, 79–97. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203927243.pt2

Merk, Jeroen (2011): Production beyond the Horizon of Consumption: Spatial fixes and Anti-Sweatshop Struggles in the Global Athletic Footwear Industry. In: Global Society 25(1), 71-93.

Merk, Jeroen (2014): The rise of tier 1 firms in the global garment industry. In: Oxford Development Studies 42(2), 277–285. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600818.2014.908177

Mezzadri, Alessandra (2017): The Sweatshop Regime: Labouring Bodies, Exploitation and Garments Made in India. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316337912
Nikomas (n.d.): ‘PT Nikomas’. Power-point on file.

Raj-Reichert, Gale (2015): Exercising power over labour governance in the electronics industry. In: Geoforum 67, 89-92.

Schmalz, Stefan/Ludwig, Carmen/Webster, Edward (2018): The Power Resources Approach: Developments and Challenges. In: Global Labour Journal 9 (2), 113-134. https://doi.org/10.15173/glj.v9i2.3569

Suedwind (2012): A Survey in Monitoring Labour Law Standards and Codes of Conducts In Indonesian Garment Factories, Suedwind, unpublished report on file.

Tarrow, Sidney (1998): Power in Movement: Social Movements and Contentious Politics. New York: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511813245
Hodal, Kate (2012): Nike factory to pay $1m to Indonesian workers for overtime. In: The Guardian, 12.1.2012. www.theguardian.com/world/2012/jan/12/nike-1m-indonesian- workers-overtime, 25.6.2022.

Tran, Angie (2015): ‘Small victory, systemic problems’, New Mandala [online], 30 April. www.newmandala.org/small-victory-systemic-problems/, 29.4.2021.

Warouw, Nicolaas (2006): Community-Based Agencies as the Entrepreneur’s Instruments of Control in Post-Soeharto’s Indonesia. In: Asia Pacific Business Review 12 (2), 193–207. https://doi.org/10.1080/13602380500532313

World Bank (2006): The Impact of Formal and Informal Labor Regulations on Business in Serang District. The World Bank Office Jakarta, Jakarta.

Wright, Erik (2000): Working-class power, capitalist-class interests, and class compromise. In: American Journal of Sociology 105 (4), 957-1002. https://doi.org/10.1086/210397

Zajak, Sabrina/Egels-Zandén, Niklas/Piper, Nicola (2017): Networks of Labour Activism: Collective Action across Asia and Beyond: An Introduction to the Debate. In: Development and Change 48 (5), 899–921. https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12336