Race you to the Bottom … and Back Again? The Uneven Development of Labour Codes of Conduct

This article emphasises how labour codes of conduct mediate a series of complex and evolving power relations that span the politics of consumption through to the politics of production. It argues that codes of conduct not only reflect an uneven division of labour – in which firms are stratified in size, productivity and labour conditions – but actively shape it. Using examples drawn from light-manufacturing industries in China, it illustrates how labour codes of conduct feed into these processes of uneven development. In their reaction to the implementation of codes of conduct across global supply chains, some Chinese suppliers at the higher tiers of industrial structure have sought to substitute capital for labour as a way to increase productivity beyond abusive labour conditions. Simultaneously, many smaller firms at lower tiers that are reliant on cut-throat forms of discounting have evolved elaborate schema of falsifying code of conduct processes and reports. Finally, mid-tier firms tend to display a strategically partial degree of compliance. Code provisions that empower workers to self-organise are commonly undermined because such trends threaten the very political basis upon which the restructuring the global division of labour over the past four decades has been predicated.