Prof. Andreas Bieler and I have been awarded a grant of £275k by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for a project on ‘Globalisation, national transformation and workers’ rights: an analysis of Chinese labour within the global economy’ (RES-062-23-2777; full project proposal). The project starts to run from 1 October 2011. On this blog, I will regularly provide a discussion of empirical findings related to this project.

Sunday 12 May 2013

We are on the Same Sea: HK Dock Workers Strike


On 6 May 2013, the 40-day strike by Hong Kong dock workers came to an end. Despite media criticism that this was a lose-lose ending for both the employers’ and the workers’ side, I think this long-term industrial action by Hong Kong dock workers was actually a milestone. It served to demonstrate the power of production, to show the solidarity of the whole society, and above all to speak out with a claim for decent working conditions! The purpose of this paper is to connect the recent Hong Kong dock strike with European dock workers; after all, we are on the same sea.