Upgrading in Automotive Global Production Networks: Workers’ Power in South Africa

What is it about?

The introduction of focus on the improvement of workers’ conditions, also called social upgrading, was a welcome development in the study of the strategies by firms to improve their positions to reap more rewards, also called economic upgrading, in global production networks. We argue that although workers initiatives and power play a primary role for them to realise social upgrading improvements which do not automatically follow from economic upgrading, without economic upgrading social upgrading will not be sustainable. We show how it was through their power that workers in the automotive manufacturing global production networks in South Africa were able to realise social upgrading improvements. The rights realised in legislation and labour institutions were the result of workers using their power in strategic ways. We argue for an alternative approach to social upgrading that foregrounds workers' power as a crucial determinant of social upgrading. This, we conclude, will require a labour-led development path.

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