Who governs industrial policy? State–labor relations in the closure and reindustrialisation of an automotive factory

In the current post-neoliberal conjuncture, industrial policy has reemerged as a key arena through which states attempt to manage global restructuring, geopolitical rivalry and recurrent crises. Yet much of IPE literature continues to marginalize labor within state-led strategies of industrial transformation. This article advances a labor-centered perspective on industrial policy and state capitalism through an analysis of the contested closure and reindustrialisation of Nissan’s Zona Franca plant in Barcelona. Drawing on qualitative evidence, it shows how trade unions mobilized organizational capacities to reshape closure outcomes and reindustrialisation trajectories within a fragmented and reactive state framework. The article demonstrates that labor regimes and industrial policy are not fixed institutional arrangements but open to transformation through complex class struggles across various governance levels.