Global Worker Unrest

A story in the Financial Times today caught my eye and I thought I'd make a quick inter-country comparison of how each countries workers handle their disagreements with management. I'll start with the extreme example.

In China:
Tonghua Iron & Steel, a state-run enterprise with about 50,000 workers, had been in privatization talks with Jianlong Group, one of China’s largest privately-held steel companies, when the workers rebelled. After the manager, Chen Guojun, stated that he was going to lay-off all of the workers, they beat him unconscious then stopped an ambulance and police from entering. The manager died because of the attack.

In France:
France has several interesting examples. Two weeks ago, workers facing lay-offs at a Nortel Networks research center that is being closed in Châteaufort, near Paris, threatened to blow up their factories unless they receive more severance pay. They later admitted the bomb threats were a hoax. Back in April, workers at two Caterpillar plants in Grenoble, France, kidnapped five of their management team in their offices after the company announced it would be laying off 733 employees. More examples of the French workers "kidnapping strategy" can be found in this comprehensive article from the Washington Times. Though this strategy sounds extreme, the workers typically treat their "hostages" very well and mainly used the tactic to bring media attention and awareness of the issue to the rest of the country.

In the United States:
The only example of a successful worker rebellion (other than a strike) that I can remember in the past few years was the sit-in last year at the Republic Windows and Doors factory in Chicago that ended with the company getting an emergency loan that kept the factory open.

Why is it that extreme examples of worker protests don't happen in America any more? Where are all of the protests, like the ones in the '60s and '70s that made America famous? I ask because, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States has the highest rates of poverty and inequality of it's member countries, with the exception of Mexico and Turkey. The OECD was formed in 1960 and currently has 30 members, that you can see here. The first link in this paragraph takes you to the OECD individual report on the US also has some other very interesting statistics, so I highly suggest clicking it.

Could America's worker's response to management be so docile because of the fact that their economic well-being is so fragile? I'm not advocating violence or bloodshed, but where are the domestic protests?