What difference does this make to IHR in the firms involved? Rising labor activism is starting to become evident in China. In mid-2010 activism asserted itself at the factories of Foxconn (see Case 5.2) and Honda Motor, and for the first time included more than workers, such as groups like New Labor Art Troup (a performance group with a cast of immigrant laborers), legal aid and other support networks at scores of universities, law firms focused on promoting workers' rights, and countless migrant worker aid associations. The question is whether these groups can spawn a workers' movement that has the organization and mass to challenge factory owners across the country. Until a few years ago the Chinese authorities broke up sporadic workers' protests with relative ease. Primarily, the Chinese security apparatus made sure that the leaders of labor protests in Shenzen, Harbin, and elsewhere didn't connect with each other to form a national movement.

However, today's young workers may be harder to corral. China now (2010) has 787 million mobile-phone users and 348 million Internet users—and migrant workers in their twenties (those who fill many of the factory positions in the major industrial cities) are far more aware of world developments than their parents. The younger generation follows labor actions as they unfold, whether in China's north-eastern Rust Belt or southern Pearl River Delta.

The more assertive workers have also benefited from a huge push by China's state- run media to popularize knowledge about the tough labor contract law passed in 2008. As a result, young workers know what's owed them, whether it is guarantees of double pay for overtime or safer working conditions. They are starting to ask for more so that the days of cheap labor and easy abuse are gone.