Catherwood LibraryILR School

Last week more than 1,000 workers at an IBM factory in China went on strike after it was announced that the factory was slated to be sold to Lenovo. The strike was sparked by the worry that the plant, which makes low-end servers, may be moved, downsized, or closed altogether. Wildcat strikes have become more frequent as the labor shortage in China grows with 1,171 such strikes and protests recorded between June of 2011 and December of 2013. A similar strike happened at a Nokia plant in November after it was sold to Microsoft, and some of the workers in that case are still pursuing arbitration. In many Western nations, a union might be formed or called upon to negotiate with management in these situations. In China, however, the union is an arm of the government and has rarely sided with the workers, often leaving wildcat strikes the last viable choice of employees.