Overview

Walmart and ""Made in China"" are practically synonymous; Walmart imports some 70 percent of its merchandise from China. Walmart is now also rapidly becoming a major retail presence there, with close to two hundred Walmarts in more than a hundred Chinese cities. What happens when the world's biggest retailer and the world's biggest country do business with each other? In this book, a group of thirteen experts from several disciplines examine the symbiotic but strained relationship between these giants. The book shows how Walmart began cutting costs by bypassing its American suppliers and sourcing directly from Asia and how Walmart's sheer size has trumped all other multinationals in squeezing procurement prices and, as a by-product, driving down Chinese workers' wages. China is also an inviting frontier for Walmart's global superstore expansion. As China's middle class grows, the chain's Western image and affordable goods have become popular. Walmart's Arkansas headquarters exports to the Chinese stores a unique corporate culture and management ideology, which oddly enough are reminiscent of Mao-era Chinese techniques for promoting loyalty. Three chapters separately detail the lives of a Walmart store manager, a lower-level store supervisor, and a cashier. Another chapter focuses on employees' wages, ""voluntary"" overtime, and the stores' strict labor discipline. In 2006, the official Chinese trade union targeted Walmart, which is antilabor in its home country, and succeeded in setting up union branches in all the stores. Walmart in China reveals the surprising outcome. Contributors: Diana Beaumont, coeditor of China Labor News Translations; Anita Chan, University of Technology, Sydney; David J. Davies, Hamline University; Nelson Lichtenstein, University of California, Santa Barbara; Scott E. Myers, Monterey Institute of International Studies; Eileen Otis, University of Oregon; Pun Ngai, Hong Kong Polytechnic University; Katie Quan, University of California, Berkeley; Taylor Seeman, Hamline University; Kaxton Siu, Australian National University; Jonathan Unger, Australian National University; Xue Hong, East China Normal University; Yu Xiaomin, Beijing Normal University

Full Product Details

Author:   Anita Chan ,  Anita Chan, Ph.D.
Publisher:   Cornell University Press
Imprint:   ILR Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.20cm , Height: 2.70cm , Length: 22.90cm
Weight:   0.454kg
ISBN:  

9780801450204

ISBN 10:   0801450209
Pages:   304
Publication Date:   13 October 2011
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Awaiting stock  
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Table of Contents

Introduction: When the World's Largest Company Encounters the World's Biggest Country by Anita Chan Part One: The Walmart Supply Chain 1. Walmart's Long March to China: How a Mid-American Retailer Came to Stake Its Future on the Chinese Economy by Nelson Lichtenstein 2. Outsourcing in China: Walmart and Chinese Manufacturers by Xue Hong 3. Walmartization, Corporate Social Responsibility, and the Labor Standards of Toy Factories in South China by Yu Xiaomin and Pun Ngai 4. Made in China: Work and Wages in Walmart Supplier Factories by Anita Chan and Kaxton Siu Part Two: The Walmart Stores 5. Corporate Cadres: Management and Corporate Culture at Walmart China by David J. Davies 6. A Store Manager's Success Story by David J. Davies and Taylor Seeman 7. Practicing Cheer: The Diary of a Low-Level Supervisor at a Walmart China Store by Scott E. Myers and Anita Chan Translation by Scott E. Myers 8. Working in Walmart, Kunming: Technology, Outsourcing, and Retail Globalization by Eileen M. Otis Part Three: Walmart Trade Unions 9. Unionizing Chinese Walmart Stores by Anita Chan 10. Did Unionization Make a Difference? Work Conditions and Trade Union Activities at Chinese Walmart Stores by Jonathan Unger, Diana Beaumont, and Anita Chan 11. Workers and Communities versus Walmart: A Comparison of Organized Resistance in the United States and China by Katie Quan Notes Notes on Contributors Index

Reviews

<p> The book's contributors used cloak-and-dagger fieldwork skills to provide a sharp picture of labor conditions at Walmart s suppliers and in its Chinese stores. They show that the company s Ethical Standards Program has done little to prevent sweatshop-like abuses among its suppliers. On the other hand, its store employees have taken easily to the corporate culture, whose Christian- and rural-inflected ethos meshes with Chinese traditions of moral exhortation, mutual surveillance, and the pursuit of personal ambition through collective service. Andrew J. Nathan, Foreign Affairs (May/June 2012)

<p> The secrets of Walmart's success lie in Bentonville, but also in Guangdong. In this groundbreaking book, Anita Chan and others pull back the curtain on the Chinese side of the world-shaping retail model and spotlight its huge implications for the U.S. economy. -Chris Tilly, UCLA

Anita Chan's newly edited book, Walmart in China, is one of the best academic works on Chinese labor in recent years....As one of the finest scholarly works generated from international cooperation, this book opens at least two important areas for further exploration. First, labor relations in Walmart stores are worth further ethnographic exploration. Second, it would be interesting to study the evolving role of trade unions since the CCP-led state has emphasized trade union reform and wage bargaining from 2010. Chris, King-Chi Chan, The China Journal(July 2013)

The book's contributors used cloak-and-dagger fieldwork skills to provide a sharp picture of labor conditions at Walmart's suppliers and in its Chinese stores. They show that the company's Ethical Standards Program has done little to prevent sweatshop-like abuses among its suppliers. On the other hand, its store employees have taken easily to the corporate culture, whose Christian- and rural-inflected ethos meshes with Chinese traditions of moral exhortation, mutual surveillance, and the pursuit of personal ambition through collective service. -Andrew J. Nathan, Foreign Affairs (May/June 2012) The authors demonstrate how the sheer scale of Walmart intimidates suppliers into accepting tight lead times, leading to illegally long working hours, an increase in outsourcing, and an atmosphere of insecurity and powerlessness at almost all levels in the supply chain... Chan and her fellow contributors provide labour activists with considerable food for thought, and-who knows-maybe even a few sleepless nights for some of the most committed antitrade union executives on the planet. -Tim Pringle, British Journal of Industrial Relations (March 2013) Anita Chan's newly edited book, Walmart in China, is one of the best academic works on Chinese labor in recent years...As one of the finest scholarly works generated from international cooperation, this book opens at least two important areas for further exploration. First, labor relations in Walmart stores are worth further ethnographic exploration. Second, it would be interesting to study the evolving role of trade unions since the CCP-led state has emphasized trade union reform and wage bargaining from 2010. -Chris, King-Chi Chan,The China Journal(July 2013) The book provides a multidimensional analysis of Walmartization in China... The essays show some optimism for the future of Walmart's labour movement, with critical suggestions provided for key parties. -Xuebing Cao, Work, Employment & Society (2013) The secrets of Walmart's success lie in Bentonville, but also in Guangdong. In this groundbreaking book, Anita Chan and others pull back the curtain on the Chinese side of the world-shaping retail model and spotlight its huge implications for the U.S. economy. -Chris Tilly, UCLA

<p> The book's contributors used cloak-and-dagger fieldwork skills to provide a sharp picture of labor conditions at Walmart's suppliers and in its Chinese stores. They show that the company's Ethical Standards Program has done little to prevent sweatshop-like abuses among its suppliers. On the other hand, its store employees have taken easily to the corporate culture, whose Christian- and rural-inflected ethos meshes with Chinese traditions of moral exhortation, mutual surveillance, and the pursuit of personal ambition through collective service. -Andrew J. Nathan, Foreign Affairs (May/June 2012)

Author Information

Anita Chan is Research Professor at the China Research Centre of the University of Technology, Sydney. She is the editor of Walmart in China andChinese Workers in Comparative Perspective, both from Cornell, author ofChina's Workers under Assault: The Exploitation of Labor in a Globalizing Economy and Children of Mao: Personality Development and Political Activism in the Red Guard Generation, and coauthor of Chen Village: Revolution to Globalization.

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