One firm, two countries, one workplace model? The case of Foxconn’s expansion from China to the Czech Republic
This talk will investigate the transfer of work and labour practices from Foxconn’s manufacturing headquarters in mainland China to its subsidiaries in the Czech Republic and asks what factors are influencing Foxconn’s adaptation of its work and employment practices. While Chinese and Czech plants share several similarities (flexible labour arrangements, low wages, use of dormitories, and weak trade union representation), the use of these practices in the Czech plants is not a result of the regime imported from China. Rather, they are an outcome of the host country institutional environment, sectoral specificity, and systemic logic of capital. Foxconn adapted its work and employment practices also on the basis of the social composition of the workforce and its various forms of agency.