China-Africa Encounter and Worker Resistance: A Case Study of Wildcat Strikes Against a Chinese-Owned Company in Ethiopia

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines labor conflicts and worker resistance in the context of Chinese capital in Africa through a case study of large-scale wildcat strikes staged by local workers against the Huanan Group, a Chinese-owned manufacturing firm in Ethiopia. Beginning in January 2019, these strikes lasted for over four months and were unprecedented in terms of both the scale and duration. The authors argue that the wildcat strikes grew out of workers’ discontent caused by the company’s semi-militarized despotic labor regime, which was characterized by low wages, intense labor process, and militarized management style. The discontent among workers failed to materialize into effective forms of protest in previous years because the national institutions granted sufficient support for the labor regime and suppressed workers’ agency. However, changes in Ethiopia’s political environment from the mid-2010s led to the strengthening of worker power and the deterioration of state-business relations, which destabilized the status of the labor regime and provided the capacity for wildcat strikes to develop.