Zones of regulation: Restructuring labor control in privatized export zones

Politics and Society

Volumn 32, Issue 2, 2004, Pages 171-202

  McKay, Steven C ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MILWAUKEE   (United States)

Author keywords

Electronics; Export processing zones; Labor control; Labor markets; Philippines

Indexed keywords

EID: 2542547301     PISSN: 00323292     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/0032329204263069     Document Type: Article

References (104)

1. Folker Frobel, Juergen Heinrich, and Otto Kreye, The New International Division of Labor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980); Frederic Deyo, Beneath the Mirade: Labor Subordination in the New Asian Industrialism (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1989).
2. Folker Frobel, Juergen Heinrich, and Otto Kreye, The New International Division of Labor (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980); Frederic Deyo, Beneath the Mirade: Labor Subordination in the New Asian Industrialism (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1989).
3. Susan Strange, The Retreat of the State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996); Tony Elger and Paul K. Edwards, "Introduction," in The Global Economy, National States and the Regulation of Labour, ed. Paul K. Edwards and Tony Elger (London: Mansell, 1999), 1-41.
4. Susan Strange, The Retreat of the State (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996); Tony Elger and Paul K. Edwards, "Introduction," in The Global Economy, National States and the Regulation of Labour, ed. Paul K. Edwards and Tony Elger (London: Mansell, 1999), 1-41.
5. Michael Burawoy, Politics of Production (London: Verso, 1985), 148-52, 263-68; Leslie Sklair, Assembling for Development: The Maquila Industry in Mexico and the United States (London: Unwin Hyman, 1989); Naomi Klein, No Logo (London: HarperCollins/Flamingo, 2000).
6. Michael Burawoy, Politics of Production (London: Verso, 1985), 148-52, 263-68; Leslie Sklair, Assembling for Development: The Maquila Industry in Mexico and the United States (London: Unwin Hyman, 1989); Naomi Klein, No Logo (London: HarperCollins/Flamingo, 2000).
7. Michael Burawoy, Politics of Production (London: Verso, 1985), 148-52, 263-68; Leslie Sklair, Assembling for Development: The Maquila Industry in Mexico and the United States (London: Unwin Hyman, 1989); Naomi Klein, No Logo (London: HarperCollins/Flamingo, 2000).
8. Eileen Appelbaum, Thomas Bailey, Peter Berg, and Arne L. Kalleberg, Manufacturing Advantage: Why High-Performance Work Systems Pay Off (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999), 7-9, 25-46; Peter Cappelli and David Neumark, "Do 'High-Performance' Work Practices Improve Establishment-level Outcomes?" Industrial & Labor Relations Review 54, no. 4 (2001): 737-75; Paul Osterman, Securing Prosperity (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), 90; Thomas Kochan, Russell Lansbury, and John Paul MacDuffie, After Lean Production: Evolving Employment Practices in the World Automobile Industry (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997).
9. Eileen Appelbaum, Thomas Bailey, Peter Berg, and Arne L. Kalleberg, Manufacturing Advantage: Why High-Performance Work Systems Pay Off (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999), 7-9, 25-46; Peter Cappelli and David Neumark, "Do 'High-Performance' Work Practices Improve Establishment-level Outcomes?" Industrial & Labor Relations Review 54, no. 4 (2001): 737-75; Paul Osterman, Securing Prosperity (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), 90; Thomas Kochan, Russell Lansbury, and John Paul MacDuffie, After Lean Production: Evolving Employment Practices in the World Automobile Industry (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997).
10. Eileen Appelbaum, Thomas Bailey, Peter Berg, and Arne L. Kalleberg, Manufacturing Advantage: Why High-Performance Work Systems Pay Off (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999), 7-9, 25-46; Peter Cappelli and David Neumark, "Do 'High-Performance' Work Practices Improve Establishment-level Outcomes?" Industrial & Labor Relations Review 54, no. 4 (2001): 737-75; Paul Osterman, Securing Prosperity (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), 90; Thomas Kochan, Russell Lansbury, and John Paul MacDuffie, After Lean Production: Evolving Employment Practices in the World Automobile Industry (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997).
11. Eileen Appelbaum, Thomas Bailey, Peter Berg, and Arne L. Kalleberg, Manufacturing Advantage: Why High-Performance Work Systems Pay Off (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1999), 7-9, 25-46; Peter Cappelli and David Neumark, "Do 'High-Performance' Work Practices Improve Establishment-level Outcomes?" Industrial & Labor Relations Review 54, no. 4 (2001): 737-75; Paul Osterman, Securing Prosperity (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1999), 90; Thomas Kochan, Russell Lansbury, and John Paul MacDuffie, After Lean Production: Evolving Employment Practices in the World Automobile Industry (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1997).
12. Dieter Ernst, "From Partial to Systemic Globalization: International Production Networks in the Electronics Industry" (working paper no. 98, Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy [BRIE], Berkeley, CA, 1997); Raphael Kaplinsky, "Technique and System: The Spread of Japanese Management Techniques to Developing Countries," World Development 23, no. 1 (1995): 57-71; Auret Van Heerden, "Export-Processing Zones: The Cutting Edge of Globalization?" (paper prepared for the International Institute for Labour Studies, Geneva, Switzerland, May 1998); Richard Florida and Martin Kenney, Beyond Mass Production: The Japanese System and Its Transfer to the U.S (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).
13. Dieter Ernst, "From Partial to Systemic Globalization: International Production Networks in the Electronics Industry" (working paper no. 98, Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy [BRIE], Berkeley, CA, 1997); Raphael Kaplinsky, "Technique and System: The Spread of Japanese Management Techniques to Developing Countries," World Development 23, no. 1 (1995): 57-71; Auret Van Heerden, "Export-Processing Zones: The Cutting Edge of Globalization?" (paper prepared for the International Institute for Labour Studies, Geneva, Switzerland, May 1998); Richard Florida and Martin Kenney, Beyond Mass Production: The Japanese System and Its Transfer to the U.S (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).
14. Dieter Ernst, "From Partial to Systemic Globalization: International Production Networks in the Electronics Industry" (working paper no. 98, Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy [BRIE], Berkeley, CA, 1997); Raphael Kaplinsky, "Technique and System: The Spread of Japanese Management Techniques to Developing Countries," World Development 23, no. 1 (1995): 57-71; Auret Van Heerden, "Export-Processing Zones: The Cutting Edge of Globalization?" (paper prepared for the International Institute for Labour Studies, Geneva, Switzerland, May 1998); Richard Florida and Martin Kenney, Beyond Mass Production: The Japanese System and Its Transfer to the U.S (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).
15. Dieter Ernst, "From Partial to Systemic Globalization: International Production Networks in the Electronics Industry" (working paper no. 98, Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy [BRIE], Berkeley, CA, 1997); Raphael Kaplinsky, "Technique and System: The Spread of Japanese Management Techniques to Developing Countries," World Development 23, no. 1 (1995): 57-71; Auret Van Heerden, "Export-Processing Zones: The Cutting Edge of Globalization?" (paper prepared for the International Institute for Labour Studies, Geneva, Switzerland, May 1998); Richard Florida and Martin Kenney, Beyond Mass Production: The Japanese System and Its Transfer to the U.S (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993).
16. On restructuring in industrialized countries, see Jody Knauss, "Modular Mass Production: High Performance on the Low Road," Politics & Society 26, no. 2 (1998): 273-96; Nicolas Bacon, "High Involvement Work Systems and Job Insecurity in the International Iron and Steel Industry," Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences 18, no. 1 (2001): 5-17; Paul Osterman, "Work Reorganization in an Era of Restructuring: Trends in Diffusion and Effects on Employee Welfare," Industrial and Labor Relations Review 53, no. 2 (2000): 197-96. On reorganization of work in developing countries, see Kevin Middlebrook, "The Politics of Industrial Restructuring: Transnational Firms' Search for Flexible Production in the Mexican Automobile Industry," in Social Reconstruction of the World Auto Industry, ed. Fredric Deyo (New York: St. Martin's, 1996), 200-32; Harley Shaiken, "Lean Production in a Mexican Context," in Lean Work: Power and Exploitation in the Global Auto Industry, ed. Steve Babson (Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 1995), 247-59.
17. On restructuring in industrialized countries, see Jody Knauss, "Modular Mass Production: High Performance on the Low Road," Politics & Society 26, no. 2 (1998): 273-96; Nicolas Bacon, "High Involvement Work Systems and Job Insecurity in the International Iron and Steel Industry," Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences 18, no. 1 (2001): 5-17; Paul Osterman, "Work Reorganization in an Era of Restructuring: Trends in Diffusion and Effects on Employee Welfare," Industrial and Labor Relations Review 53, no. 2 (2000): 197-96. On reorganization of work in developing countries, see Kevin Middlebrook, "The Politics of Industrial Restructuring: Transnational Firms' Search for Flexible Production in the Mexican Automobile Industry," in Social Reconstruction of the World Auto Industry, ed. Fredric Deyo (New York: St. Martin's, 1996), 200-32; Harley Shaiken, "Lean Production in a Mexican Context," in Lean Work: Power and Exploitation in the Global Auto Industry, ed. Steve Babson (Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 1995), 247-59.
18. On restructuring in industrialized countries, see Jody Knauss, "Modular Mass Production: High Performance on the Low Road," Politics & Society 26, no. 2 (1998): 273-96; Nicolas Bacon, "High Involvement Work Systems and Job Insecurity in the International Iron and Steel Industry," Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences 18, no. 1 (2001): 5-17; Paul Osterman, "Work Reorganization in an Era of Restructuring: Trends in Diffusion and Effects on Employee Welfare," Industrial and Labor Relations Review 53, no. 2 (2000): 197-96. On reorganization of work in developing countries, see Kevin Middlebrook, "The Politics of Industrial Restructuring: Transnational Firms' Search for Flexible Production in the Mexican Automobile Industry," in Social Reconstruction of the World Auto Industry, ed. Fredric Deyo (New York: St. Martin's, 1996), 200-32; Harley Shaiken, "Lean Production in a Mexican Context," in Lean Work: Power and Exploitation in the Global Auto Industry, ed. Steve Babson (Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 1995), 247-59.
19. On restructuring in industrialized countries, see Jody Knauss, "Modular Mass Production: High Performance on the Low Road," Politics & Society 26, no. 2 (1998): 273-96; Nicolas Bacon, "High Involvement Work Systems and Job Insecurity in the International Iron and Steel Industry," Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences 18, no. 1 (2001): 5-17; Paul Osterman, "Work Reorganization in an Era of Restructuring: Trends in Diffusion and Effects on Employee Welfare," Industrial and Labor Relations Review 53, no. 2 (2000): 197-96. On reorganization of work in developing countries, see Kevin Middlebrook, "The Politics of Industrial Restructuring: Transnational Firms' Search for Flexible Production in the Mexican Automobile Industry," in Social Reconstruction of the World Auto Industry, ed. Fredric Deyo (New York: St. Martin's, 1996), 200-32; Harley Shaiken, "Lean Production in a Mexican Context," in Lean Work: Power and Exploitation in the Global Auto Industry, ed. Steve Babson (Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 1995), 247-59.
20. On restructuring in industrialized countries, see Jody Knauss, "Modular Mass Production: High Performance on the Low Road," Politics & Society 26, no. 2 (1998): 273-96; Nicolas Bacon, "High Involvement Work Systems and Job Insecurity in the International Iron and Steel Industry," Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences 18, no. 1 (2001): 5-17; Paul Osterman, "Work Reorganization in an Era of Restructuring: Trends in Diffusion and Effects on Employee Welfare," Industrial and Labor Relations Review 53, no. 2 (2000): 197-96. On reorganization of work in developing countries, see Kevin Middlebrook, "The Politics of Industrial Restructuring: Transnational Firms' Search for Flexible Production in the Mexican Automobile Industry," in Social Reconstruction of the World Auto Industry, ed. Fredric Deyo (New York: St. Martin's, 1996), 200-32; Harley Shaiken, "Lean Production in a Mexican Context," in Lean Work: Power and Exploitation in the Global Auto Industry, ed. Steve Babson (Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 1995), 247-59.
21. Data and analysis are based on eleven months of interview- and observation-based field research conducted in the Philippines in 1999. For the case studies, I conducted more than fifty open-ended interviews with Human Resource Managers, CEOs, supervisors, engineers, and other staff. 1 observed technical and behavioral trainings, applicant interviews, recruiting and background investigations, and shop floor production. I arranged interview with workers directly and with assistance of local researchers, conducted seventy-five 1- to 2-hour interviews at workers' homes or boarding houses. Interviews were also conducted with local government officials, public and private zone administrators, labor recruiters, union officials, and local clergy. For more detail, see Steven McKay, "Securing Commitment in an Insecure World: Power and the Social Regulation of Labor in the Philippine Electronics Industry" (Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2001), 43.
22. All firm names are pseudonyms.
23. Andrew Jonas, "Local Labour Control Regimes: Uneven Development and the Social Regulation of Production," Regional Studies 30, no. 4 (1996): 323-38.
24. Burawoy, Politics of Production, 126.
25. Ibid., 15.
26. Ibid., 265.
27. Ernst, "From Partial to Systemic Globalization," 1; David McKendrick, Richard Doner, and Stephan Haggard, From Silicon Valley to Singapore: Location and Competitive Advantage in the Hard Disk Drive Industry (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000), 87.
28. Ernst, "From Partial to Systemic Globalization," 1; David McKendrick, Richard Doner, and Stephan Haggard, From Silicon Valley to Singapore: Location and Competitive Advantage in the Hard Disk Drive Industry (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2000), 87.
29. Steve Babson, "Ambiguous Mandate: Lean Production and Labor Relations in the United States," in Confronting Change: Auto Labor and Lean Production in North America, 2nd ed., ed. Humberto Juarez Nunez and Steve Babson (Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 1999), 23-50; Steven Vallas, "Why Teamwork Fails: Obstacles to Workplace Change in Four Manufacturing Plants," American Sociological Review 68, no. 2 (2003).
30. Steve Babson, "Ambiguous Mandate: Lean Production and Labor Relations in the United States," in Confronting Change: Auto Labor and Lean Production in North America, 2nd ed., ed. Humberto Juarez Nunez and Steve Babson (Detroit, MI: Wayne State University Press, 1999), 23-50; Steven Vallas, "Why Teamwork Fails: Obstacles to Workplace Change in Four Manufacturing Plants," American Sociological Review 68, no. 2 (2003).
31. Richard Edwards, Contested Terrain: The Transformation of the Workplace In the Twentieth Century (London: Heinemann, 1979), 52; Michael Burawoy, Manufacturing Consent, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979), 77.
32. Richard Edwards, Contested Terrain: The Transformation of the Workplace In the Twentieth Century (London: Heinemann, 1979), 52; Michael Burawoy, Manufacturing Consent, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1979), 77.
33. Ching Kwan Lee, Gender and the South China Miracle: Two Worlds of Factory Women (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 107.
34. This position is consistent with neoinstitutionalists that recognize that states under globalization still matter, but mainly through national-level policies. See J. R Hollingsworth and Robert Boyer, eds., Contemporary Capitalism: The Embeddedness of Institutions (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).
35. See Sean O'Riain, "The Flexible Developmental State: Globalization, Information Technology, and the Celtic Tiger," Politics & Society 28, no. 2 (2000): 157.
36. Lee, Gender and the South China Miracle, 12.
37. Andrew Mair, "Strategic Localization: The Myth of the Postnational Enterprise" in Spaces of Globalization, ed. Kevin Cox (New York: Guilford), 64-88; Ruth Milkman, Japan's California Factories: Labor Relations and Economic Globalization (Los Angeles: Institute of Industrial Relations, University of California, Los Angeles, 1991), 72.
38. Andrew Mair, "Strategic Localization: The Myth of the Postnational Enterprise" in Spaces of Globalization, ed. Kevin Cox (New York: Guilford), 64-88; Ruth Milkman, Japan's California Factories: Labor Relations and Economic Globalization (Los Angeles: Institute of Industrial Relations, University of California, Los Angeles, 1991), 72.
39. Burawoy, Politics of Production, 14.
40. Jamie Peck, Work-Place: The Social Regulation of Labor Markets (New York: Guilford, 1996), 179.
41. Jonas, "Local Labour Control Regimes," 335. As Jonas explains, Whereas capital-in-general is interested in the free and unlimited exchange of labor power, particular capitals are sensitive to the local contexts in which that exchange takes place. As such, they develop labor control strategies which limit the "freedom" of labor and regulate the conditions under which it enters the labor process.
42. Ibid., 328.
43. Diane Elson and Ruth Pearson. "Nimble Fingers Make Cheap Workers: An Analysis of Women's Employment in Third World Export Manufacturing," Feminist Review 1 (spring 1981): 144-66; M. Fernandez-Kelly, For We Are Sold, I and My People: Women and Industry in Mexico's Frontier (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1983); for a review see also H. Amirahmadi and W. Wu, "Export Processing Zones in Asia," Asian Survey 35, no. 9 (1995): 828-49.
44. Diane Elson and Ruth Pearson. "Nimble Fingers Make Cheap Workers: An Analysis of Women's Employment in Third World Export Manufacturing," Feminist Review 1 (spring 1981): 144-66; M. Fernandez-Kelly, For We Are Sold, I and My People: Women and Industry in Mexico's Frontier (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1983); for a review see also H. Amirahmadi and W. Wu, "Export Processing Zones in Asia," Asian Survey 35, no. 9 (1995): 828-49.
45. Diane Elson and Ruth Pearson. "Nimble Fingers Make Cheap Workers: An Analysis of Women's Employment in Third World Export Manufacturing," Feminist Review 1 (spring 1981): 144-66; M. Fernandez-Kelly, For We Are Sold, I and My People: Women and Industry in Mexico's Frontier (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1983); for a review see also H. Amirahmadi and W. Wu, "Export Processing Zones in Asia," Asian Survey 35, no. 9 (1995): 828-49.
46. Ken Ohara, "Bataan Export Processing Zone: Its Development and Social Implications," in Free Trade Zones and Industrializations of Asia, ed. Ken Ohara (Tokyo: Pacific Asia Resource Center, 1977); Cornelia Aldana, A Contract for Underdevelopment: Subcontracting for Multinationals in the Philippine Semiconductor and Garment Industries (Manila, the Philippines: IBON Databank Philippines, Inc., 1989); Daisy Ferez, "The Situation of Filipino Women Workers in Export Processing Zones and Industrial Enclaves in the Philippines," in We in the Zone: Women Workers in Asia's Export Processing Zones (Hong Kong: Asia Monitor Resource Center, Ltd, 1998), 98-134.
47. Ken Ohara, "Bataan Export Processing Zone: Its Development and Social Implications," in Free Trade Zones and Industrializations of Asia, ed. Ken Ohara (Tokyo: Pacific Asia Resource Center, 1977); Cornelia Aldana, A Contract for Underdevelopment: Subcontracting for Multinationals in the Philippine Semiconductor and Garment Industries (Manila, the Philippines: IBON Databank Philippines, Inc., 1989); Daisy Ferez, "The Situation of Filipino Women Workers in Export Processing Zones and Industrial Enclaves in the Philippines," in We in the Zone: Women Workers in Asia's Export Processing Zones (Hong Kong: Asia Monitor Resource Center, Ltd, 1998), 98-134.
48. Ken Ohara, "Bataan Export Processing Zone: Its Development and Social Implications," in Free Trade Zones and Industrializations of Asia, ed. Ken Ohara (Tokyo: Pacific Asia Resource Center, 1977); Cornelia Aldana, A Contract for Underdevelopment: Subcontracting for Multinationals in the Philippine Semiconductor and Garment Industries (Manila, the Philippines: IBON Databank Philippines, Inc., 1989); Daisy Ferez, "The Situation of Filipino Women Workers in Export Processing Zones and Industrial Enclaves in the Philippines," in We in the Zone: Women Workers in Asia's Export Processing Zones (Hong Kong: Asia Monitor Resource Center, Ltd, 1998), 98-134.
49. J. W. Henderson, Globalisation of High Technology Production: Society, Space, and Semiconductors in the Restructuring of the Modern World (London: Routledge, 1989).
50. The incentives allowed 100 percent foreign ownership, duty and tax free production, unrestricted repatriation of profits, and the right to borrow money locally with Philippine government guarantees. See Edberto M. Villegas, The Political Economy of Philippine Labor Law (Quezon City, the Philippines: Foundation for Nationalist Studies, 1989).
51. By the early 1980s, electronics also began to play a major role in Philippine exports. In 1976, electronics exports were just US$115 million or 3 percent of total Philippine exports. But by 1982, exports had reached 1 billion dollars, a tenfold increase in just six years, and electronics had already become the countries top exporting sector (Central Bank figures cited in Aldana, A Contract for Underdevelopment, 124).
52. World Bank, "Philippines: Managing Global Integration, volume II" (rep. no. 17024-PH, Background Papers, Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Sector, East Asia and the Pacific Office, World Bank, 1997).
53. Gwendolyn Tecson, "The Hard Disk Drive Industry in the Philippines" (The Information Storage Industry Center, rep. 99-01, University of California, San Diego, 1999), 1.
54. Semiconductor and Electronics Industry of the Philippines, Inc., "The Philippine Electronics Industry: Driver of the Philippine Economy", July 2001, http://www.siepi.org.ph.
55. These women workers were almost exclusively young (97 percent below age thirty), single (81 percent), and relatively well educated (over half with high school certificates and 30 percent having gone through college). See National Commission on the Role of the Filipino Women, Women Workers in the Philippines (Manila, the Philippines: National Commission on the Role of the Filipino Women, 1985).
56. From November 1980 to September 1981, one-fifth of the entire zone workforce was either laid off or on forced vacation leave and in 1983, over two thousand workers lost their jobs entirely. See Ma. Teresa Diokno, "The Failure of EPZs in the Philippines," in Transnational and Special Economic Zones: The Experience of China and Selected Asian Countries, ed. Teresa Carino (Manila, the Philippines: De La Salle University Press, 1989); Kim Scipes, KMU: Building Genuine Trade Unionism in the Philippines, 1980-1994 (Quezon City, the Philippines: New Day Publishers, 1996).
57. From November 1980 to September 1981, one-fifth of the entire zone workforce was either laid off or on forced vacation leave and in 1983, over two thousand workers lost their jobs entirely. See Ma. Teresa Diokno, "The Failure of EPZs in the Philippines," in Transnational and Special Economic Zones: The Experience of China and Selected Asian Countries, ed. Teresa Carino (Manila, the Philippines: De La Salle University Press, 1989); Kim Scipes, KMU: Building Genuine Trade Unionism in the Philippines, 1980-1994 (Quezon City, the Philippines: New Day Publishers, 1996).
58. Noel Vasquez, Mobilizing Surplus Labour through International Exchange: Philippine EPZs, Overseas Employment and Labour Subcontracting (Manila, the Philippines: Brotherhood of Asian Trade Unionists and Ateneo Center for Social Policy, 1987); Leopolde Dejillas, Trade Union Behavior in the Philippines 1946-1990 (Manila, the Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1994); Scipes, KMU.
59. Noel Vasquez, Mobilizing Surplus Labour through International Exchange: Philippine EPZs, Overseas Employment and Labour Subcontracting (Manila, the Philippines: Brotherhood of Asian Trade Unionists and Ateneo Center for Social Policy, 1987); Leopolde Dejillas, Trade Union Behavior in the Philippines 1946-1990 (Manila, the Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1994); Scipes, KMU.
60. Originally named the Cavite Export Processing Zone (CEPZ), the zone was renamed the Cavite Economic Zone or CEZ in 1995.
61. For example, in the winding section, until the mid-1990s, the company still used entirely foot-pedal powered machines. Recent upgrades have not eliminated foot power, only integrated "push button" or motor-driven winding to be used, "when your feet get tired."
62. ISO 9002 is a set of quality standards for all aspects of production and service developed by the International Standardization Organization in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1987. ISO 9002 certification requires a company to follow strict standards and procedures for measuring quality in each part in production. ISO 1400 is a similar certification based on implementing an environmental management system.
63. According to the Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research (EILER), a research group affiliated with the Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) Labor Center, a living wage in 1999 for a family of six was P424 per day or P 10,504 per month.
64. Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), "Economic Indicators" (Manila, the Philippines: PEZA, 2001).
65. For example, between 1988 and 1995, five Cavite mayors were murdered, all of them political opponents of Remulla. The governor denied any involvement and when confronted with the murders responded: "Statistics-people are always dying. Mayors are no exception." See Sheila Coronel, "The Killing Fields of Commerce," in Boss: 5 Case Studies of Local Politics in the Philippines, ed. Jose F. Lacaba (Manila: Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism and Institute for Popular Democracy, 1995), 5.
66. For details on the history of Cavite politics and the manipulated conversion from an agricultural to an industrial based economy, see Coronel, "The lulling Fields of Commerce," 1-30; John Me Andrew, Urban Usurpation: From Friar Estates to Industrial Estates in a Philippine Hinterland (Manila, the Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1994); John Sidel, Capital, Coercion, and Crime: Bossism in the Philippines (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999), 51.
67. For details on the history of Cavite politics and the manipulated conversion from an agricultural to an industrial based economy, see Coronel, "The lulling Fields of Commerce," 1-30; John Me Andrew, Urban Usurpation: From Friar Estates to Industrial Estates in a Philippine Hinterland (Manila, the Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1994); John Sidel, Capital, Coercion, and Crime: Bossism in the Philippines (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999), 51.
68. For details on the history of Cavite politics and the manipulated conversion from an agricultural to an industrial based economy, see Coronel, "The lulling Fields of Commerce," 1-30; John Me Andrew, Urban Usurpation: From Friar Estates to Industrial Estates in a Philippine Hinterland (Manila, the Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1994); John Sidel, Capital, Coercion, and Crime: Bossism in the Philippines (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999), 51.
69. Salvaging is the term used in the Philippines for the murder and public disposal/display of a victim's body often used as an intimidation tactic, see Sidel, Capital, Coercion, and Crime, 23-80.
70. The head administrator of the Industrial Relations Department (IRD) explained that firms are looking for women (because they are "industrious and patient"), between eighteen to twenty-two years of age (because "young ones have better eyes and dexterity"), and at least high school graduates. Both the zone administrator and the IRD chief noted that while garment producers often are willing to hire older workers, "even 25 year-olds." the electronics companies' main hiring criteria is "trainability"' and will often accept underage workers. The population of zone workers reflect these criteria: 73 percent of all workers are female, 71 percent of workers finished high school, while nearly 17 percent had either some college or has finished a college degree. On the other hand, over 95 percent of the over six hundred foreign management personnel are male. See Cavite Economic Zone (CEZ)/Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA), unpublished monthly reports, 1999.
71. Perez, "The Situation of Filipino Women Workers," 127; Marie Aganon, R. P Ofreneo, R. del Rosario, M. S. P. Ballesteros and R. E. Ofreneo, "Strategies to Empower Women Workers in the Philippine Economic Zones," Philippine Journal of Labor and Industrial Relations 18, nos. 1 and 2 (1998): 106-59.
72. Perez, "The Situation of Filipino Women Workers," 127; Marie Aganon, R. P Ofreneo, R. del Rosario, M. S. P. Ballesteros and R. E. Ofreneo, "Strategies to Empower Women Workers in the Philippine Economic Zones," Philippine Journal of Labor and Industrial Relations 18, nos. 1 and 2 (1998): 106-59.
73. Workers' Assistance Center, Ang Kakagayan ng mga Manggagawa sa Cavite Export Processing Zone (The Condition of Workers in the Cavite Export Processing Zone) (Rosario, the Philippines: Workers' Assistance Center, 1996).
74. Total Quality Management (TQM) systems vary, but most focus on continuously improving quality-in product, process, and people-as the basis for global competitiveness. The main goals of TQM include reducing product and process variation, surpassing customer expectations for price, quality and delivery time, and reducing "slack time'' in design, production and administration. Common TQM tools are the systematic quantification and measurement of variation through statistical process control, employee suggestions systems and off-line quality teams. See Richard Hackman and Ruth Wageman, "Total Quality Management: Empirical, Conceptual, and Practical Issues," Administrative Science Quarterly 40, no. 2 (1996): 309-44.
75. The term refers to workers who find hiding places to sleep, while arranging with other workers to act as lookouts. It demonstrates the lengths that management will go to punish collective and deliberate resistance.
76. Overall, Storage Ltd.'s turnover rate was 14 percent in 1999, but this included probationary employees, who had been with the firm less than six months. Among regular or permanent employees, the quit rates dropped dramatically and the turnover rate here is the quoted five percent. Permanent employees make up 70 percent of the workforce.
77. For similar findings, see Diane Wolf, Factory Daughters: Gender, Household Dynamics, and Rural Industrialization in Java (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), 171 ; Carla Freeman, High Tech and High Heels in the Global Economy (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000), 138.
78. For similar findings, see Diane Wolf, Factory Daughters: Gender, Household Dynamics, and Rural Industrialization in Java (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), 171 ; Carla Freeman, High Tech and High Heels in the Global Economy (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2000), 138.
79. Paul Hutchcroft, Booty Capitalism: The Politics of Banking in the Philippines (Quezon City, the Philippines: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1998), 206.
80. Whereas the CEZ has 216 firms and 56,000 workers, the private zone where Storage Ltd. was located had only 17 locators and 16,000 workers.
81. The director of the government's Center of Industrial Competitiveness noted, "The Japanese are now our biggest investors. But there is only one fear the Japanese have, problems with uninterrupted production. Many locators want a 'guarantee' of no strikes. Without it, they won't locate here."
82. K. Legge, Human Resource Management (Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1995). Patterned after its corporate parent, Integrated Production work system closely resembles the Silicon Valley variant of the American human resource model. See Eileen Appelbaum and Rosemary Batt, The New American Workplace: Transforming Work Systems in the United States (Ithaca, NY: IRL Press, 1994); Harry Katz and Owen Darbishire, Converging Divergences: Worldwide Change in Employment Systems (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000).
83. K. Legge, Human Resource Management (Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1995). Patterned after its corporate parent, Integrated Production work system closely resembles the Silicon Valley variant of the American human resource model. See Eileen Appelbaum and Rosemary Batt, The New American Workplace: Transforming Work Systems in the United States (Ithaca, NY: IRL Press, 1994); Harry Katz and Owen Darbishire, Converging Divergences: Worldwide Change in Employment Systems (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000).
84. K. Legge, Human Resource Management (Basingstoke, UK: Macmillan, 1995). Patterned after its corporate parent, Integrated Production work system closely resembles the Silicon Valley variant of the American human resource model. See Eileen Appelbaum and Rosemary Batt, The New American Workplace: Transforming Work Systems in the United States (Ithaca, NY: IRL Press, 1994); Harry Katz and Owen Darbishire, Converging Divergences: Worldwide Change in Employment Systems (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000).
85. Thomas Kochan and Paul Osterman, The Mutual Gains Enterprise (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1994).
86. This rather generous incentive is designed primarily to reduce turnover: workers are required to remain with the firm for another full year in order to receive the computer completely free of charge.
87. These range from, "the grapevine suddenly goes dead," to "employees begin using new technical terms such as protected activity, showing of interest, demand for recognition and unfair labor practices." The manual also details, "typical organizing techniques," and a list of "views and opinions you may communicate to employees." Most of these views and opinions concern the cost of unionism for the company and for employee "freedom."
88. An HR staff member confided that when assembly was still conducted in California, the long hours, fast pace, and high demands on workers earned it the nickname, "the sweat-shop of Silicon Valley."
89. John Paul MacDuffie, "Human Resource Bundles and Manufacturing Performance: Organizational Logic and Flexible Production Systems in the World Auto Industry," Industrial and Labor Relations Review 48, no. 2 (1995): 197-221; Appelbaum et al., Manufacturing Advantage, 167.
90. John Paul MacDuffie, "Human Resource Bundles and Manufacturing Performance: Organizational Logic and Flexible Production Systems in the World Auto Industry," Industrial and Labor Relations Review 48, no. 2 (1995): 197-221; Appelbaum et al., Manufacturing Advantage, 167.
91. Rick Delbridge, Life on the Line in Contemporary Manufacturing: The Workplace Experience of Lean Production and the "Japanese" Model (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 179.
92. For similar finding in pulp and paper mills, see Steven Vallas and John Beck, "The Transformation of Work Revisited: The Limits of Flexibility in American Manufacturing," Social Problems 43, no. 3 (1996): 501-22; on technological change in American semiconductor fabrication plants, see Melissa Appleyard, and Clair Brown, "The Influence of Employment Practices on Manufacturing Performance in the Semiconductor Industry," Industrial Relations 40, no. 3 (2001): 436-71.
93. For similar finding in pulp and paper mills, see Steven Vallas and John Beck, "The Transformation of Work Revisited: The Limits of Flexibility in American Manufacturing," Social Problems 43, no. 3 (1996): 501-22; on technological change in American semiconductor fabrication plants, see Melissa Appleyard, and Clair Brown, "The Influence of Employment Practices on Manufacturing Performance in the Semiconductor Industry," Industrial Relations 40, no. 3 (2001): 436-71.
94. McKendric et al., From Silicon Valley to Singapore, 232; Jennifer Chun, "Flexible Despotism: The Intensification of Insecurity and Uncertainty in the Lives of Silicon Valley's High-Tech Assembly Workers," in The Critical Study of Work, ed. Rick Baldoz, Charles Kroeber, and Philip Kraft (Philiadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001), 127-154.
95. McKendric et al., From Silicon Valley to Singapore, 232; Jennifer Chun, "Flexible Despotism: The Intensification of Insecurity and Uncertainty in the Lives of Silicon Valley's High-Tech Assembly Workers," in The Critical Study of Work, ed. Rick Baldoz, Charles Kroeber, and Philip Kraft (Philiadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001), 127-154.
96. Steven Vallas, "Rethinking Post-Fordism: The Meaning of Workplace Flexibility," Sociological Quarterly 17, no. 1 (1999): 68-101; see also David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity (Cambridge: Basil Blackwell, 1989); Beth Rubin, "Flexible Accumulation: The Decline of the Contract and Social Transformation," Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 14 (1995): 297-323.
97. Steven Vallas, "Rethinking Post-Fordism: The Meaning of Workplace Flexibility," Sociological Quarterly 17, no. 1 (1999): 68-101; see also David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity (Cambridge: Basil Blackwell, 1989); Beth Rubin, "Flexible Accumulation: The Decline of the Contract and Social Transformation," Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 14 (1995): 297-323.
98. Steven Vallas, "Rethinking Post-Fordism: The Meaning of Workplace Flexibility," Sociological Quarterly 17, no. 1 (1999): 68-101; see also David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity (Cambridge: Basil Blackwell, 1989); Beth Rubin, "Flexible Accumulation: The Decline of the Contract and Social Transformation," Research in Social Stratification and Mobility 14 (1995): 297-323.
99. Chris Tilly and Charles Tilly, "Capitalist Work and Labor Markets," in The Handbook of Economic Sociology, ed. Neil Smelser and Richard Swedberg (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press/New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1994), 283-312; Peck, Work-Place, 46.
100. Chris Tilly and Charles Tilly, "Capitalist Work and Labor Markets," in The Handbook of Economic Sociology, ed. Neil Smelser and Richard Swedberg (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press/New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 1994), 283-312; Peck, Work-Place, 46.
101. As Rubery and Wilkinson note, Segmented labor markets . . . provide the opportunity to employers to tailor their labor market strategies to their needs without necessarily sacrificing the benefits of an established and committed workforce . . . the domestic circumstances of married women, for example, provides the basis for a flexible, committed but cheap labor force: primary workers at secondary prices. See Jill Rubery and Frank Wilkinson, "Introduction," in Employer Strategy and the Labour Market, ed. Jill Rubery and Frank Wilkinson (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994), 31-32.
102. Miriam Wells, Strawberry Fields: Politics, Class and Work in California Agriculture (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1996), 13.
103. "When You Can't Transplant Plant," The Economist, February 15, 2003, 64.
104. In 2002, China received over $53 billion in foreign direct investment, surpassing the United States for the first time as the world's top foreign direct investment destination. See "Is the Wakening Giant a Monster?" The Economist, February 15, 2003, 63-65.