ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the formation of a flexible industrial labor force in a Romanian reindustrializing region and the effects of supply chain capitalism on poor local communities, their mobility, and social reproduction. It explores the productive and reproductive realms of reindustrialization, which results in multiple forms of labor flexibilization and circulation. It argues against the linear global industrial development narratives that frame industrial work as the unidirectional endpoint of progression from informal to formal/stable work. Instead, the author argues that extreme poverty is reproduced despite and alongside reindustrialization. By drawing on the case of Romanian Roma in Baia Mare, she interrogates the interplay between precarious living conditions, flexible labor arrangements, and intra- and intergenerational social reproduction. As industrial workers, the Roma have regular contracts and access to social benefits, but contrary to conventional expectations, this does not result in financial security. Therefore, they often resort to time-off for seasonal mobility to balance the difficult physical conditions in the factory. The chapter looks specifically at how industrial labor is flexibilized by the necessities of social reproduction, how it intersects with mobility and seasonal work, and why this is not a tolerated exception but an inherent condition of the relationship between capital and labor.
