New Generation Migrant Labor-Management Conflicts: an evolutionary economics perspective
LI Yan1,2, CAO Fang2
1.South China Normal University School of Economics and Management, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510631 ;2. Guangdong University of Finance Department of Trade and Economics, Guangzhou, Guangdong 510521
Abstract:As China's economy transitions to a new structure and as the options open to migrant laborers widened, conflicts between the new generation migrant workers from rural areas and the management has intensified into a new stage. Labor-Capital conflicts manifest themselves in different ways. While sometimes the
workers still show respect to conventions and traditions, they also resort to redress through existing conflict resolution mechanisms instituted by the government as well as through other extra-legal routes, such as collective action and voting with their feet. This multiple-outcome response intensifies the instability and unpredictability of today's labor-capital conflict. Whereas the mutation in response is the work of many factors, heightened satisfaction needs are the core driving force. Once the change in labor relations has been made, it tends to be irreversible in relation to the pre-incident initial state. The governments and the management must transform the old profit distribution pattern in order to attain an advantageous institutional arrangement.