{"id":296,"date":"2011-05-10T08:17:50","date_gmt":"2011-05-10T08:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/2011\/05\/10\/where-is-the-trade-union-reform-and-labour-legislation-in-china-heading-to-2011\/"},"modified":"2011-05-10T08:17:50","modified_gmt":"2011-05-10T08:17:50","slug":"where-is-the-trade-union-reform-and-labour-legislation-in-china-heading-to-2011","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/2011\/05\/10\/where-is-the-trade-union-reform-and-labour-legislation-in-china-heading-to-2011\/","title":{"rendered":"Where is the trade union reform and labour legislation in China heading to? (2011)"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nWhere is the trade union reform and labour legislation in China heading to?<\/strong><\/em>
\nAn interview with two labour and trade union activists <\/strong><\/em>
\nA wave of workers\u2019 resistance swept China in 2010, with suicides
\nby some Foxconn workers, and a large workers\u2019 strike at Honda
\ndrawing immense social attention, local and global alike. This
\nhas compelled the Chinese government to come up with some
\nnew policy initiatives to contain the labour unrest, including
\ntrade union reform and collective bargaining legislation. Given
\nthese labour reforms a few questions arise:
\n.
\nWhere is this labour reform heading to?
\n..
\nWhat are the crucial factors that can make workers benefit
\nfrom this reform?
\n..
\nCan the party-led state trade unions be transformed to
\nserve workers\u2019 interest?
\nIn an interview conducted on 10th March 2011, Monina Wong,
\nthe Director of the International Trade Union Confederation\/
\nGlobal Union Federation Hong Liaison Office1 (IHLO) and Mr.
\nParry Leung, the Chairperson of Students and Scholars Against
\nCorporate Misbehavior2 (SACOM), shared their viewpoint on
\nthese issues.
\nThis interview first appeared in the on-line publication Global Labour Column of the Global Labour University (No. 60, May 2011) (http:\/\/column.global-labour-university.org\/<\/a>)<\/em>
\nElaine Sio-ieng Hui [E]: What kinds of labour issues have
\nbeen raised by the series of workers\u2019 suicides in Foxconn in
\n2010?
\nParry Leung [P]: Although it hardly violates any laws, Foxconn,
\na supplier to many global electronic brands, has a highly oppressive
\nproduction regime under which workers have no means at
\nall to voice out their discontent. They felt so desperate that they
\nresorted to suicide as a silent demonstration of their defiance.
\nMy observation is that no matter how much internal migrant
\nworkers from the rural areas have been exploited in urban factories,
\nin general they still have room, however little it is, to show
\ntheir resistance, for example, by means of strikes, road blockades
\nand so forth. But in Foxconn this is not possible. It does not only
\nstrictly control the production process in factories, but also the
\nprivate life of workers. For instance, all workers must stay in the
\ndormitory provided by the company, but those coming from the
\nsame home province or working in the same production line are
\nnot allowed to share a dormitory room; this is a tactic to prevent
\nthe building up of rapport and support among workers. Another
\nexample of Foxconn\u2019s infringements on workers\u2019 private lives is
\nthat all calls from the dormitory to the police hotline in the city
\nwill be automatically diverted to the security station in the dormitory;
\nFoxconn has formed a small kingdom of its own which is
\nbasically not subjected to outside interference.
\nE: The Honda workers\u2019 strike in 2010, which lasted for
\n17 days and involved over 1800 workers to demand a
\nwage increase, is seen as starting on a new stage of labour
\nresistance in China. What are its implications for
\nlabour relations in China?
\nMonina Wong [M]: This strike ended with a 32.4% wage
\nincrease for the Honda workers, who have demonstrated a
\nhigh level of consciousness concerning their positions in
\nproduction and are aware of the serious impact of their
\nstrike on the overall production of the enterprise. They
\nhave also manifested a clear consciousness regarding the
\nproper function of trade unions; they were exasperated
\nwhen they found that the enterprise trade union was on
\nthe side of the management, instead of supporting the
\nstrikers. In the past decades, we used to treat Chinese migrant
\nworkers as exploited objects that needed outside
\nhelp to protect them. But now we see that they are active
\nagents who have the labour consciousness needed for advancing
\ntheir interests with collective means. And so far,
\nthe Honda workers\u2019 strike is the most effective and powerful
\nstrike launched by migrant workers that is capable of
\nupsetting the regional production of a transnational company.
\nThe physical confrontation between trade union officials
\n(who leaned towards management) and workers during
\nthe strike has triggered immense social discussion on the
\nproper role of the Chinese trade unions. After the strike, the
\nofficial party-led All China Federation of Trade Unions
\n(ACFTU) and the government tried to alleviate labour discontent
\nby speeding up the pace of trade union reform
\nand by introducing collective bargaining legislation. It is
\ngood that these two issues have become the agenda of the
\nACFTU. However, at present most trade union education, if
\nthere is any, is solely conducted by the ACFTU while other
\nrelatively independent agents (e.g. international trade unions,
\nlabour NGOs) have no role to play in the process. The
\ndegree of democracy and accountability available to members
\ninside trade unions and the ACFTU at the moment is
\nstill at a low level. Therefore, we need relatively independent
\ntrade union education among trade union officers so as
\nto ensure the effective and genuine implementation of
\ntrade union reform and the collective bargaining mechanism.
\nE: Recently the Chinese government and the ACFTU were
\npromoting legislation on collective bargaining. In your
\nopinion, what are the driving forces for that?
\nM: In 2004, the government attempted to build up a workplace
\ncollective bargaining mechanism by means of ministerial regulations
\nissued by the Labour and Social Security Bureau, but it
\nwas not very effective as not many enterprises followed the
\ninstructions. In 2005, the ACFTU started to unionize the Fortune
\n500 corporations in China. Subsequently, trade unions
\nwere established in Wal-Mart and many other foreign enterprises,
\nbut many people know that they are paper unions only
\nand that the collective contracts they signed with the enterprises
\nremain a formality.
\nAfter the world economic crisis broke out in 2008, many enterprises
\nin the Pearl River Delta have been shut down. The central
\ngovernment and many local governments realized that the
\ncountry\u2019s economy could no longer depend entirely on export-
\noriented industries and that it had to develop a consumption-
\nbased economy. It is in this context that the ACFTU and the
\ngovernment have again picked up momentum to push forward
\ncollective bargaining legislation, which they hope will
\nlead to better wages, and thus to higher consumption by workers.
\nIt is also hoped that such measures can help reduce labour
\nunrest and maintain political stability.
\nP: The legislation on collective bargaining is related to the
\nwaves of labour resistance occurring in the country, especially
\nin South China, in the past decades. The government is aware
\nof the increasingly intense labour discontent, which it has been
\ntrying to alleviate with an individualized legal approach; this
\nexplains why the Labour Contract Law and the Labour Dispute
\nMediation and Arbitration Law focusing on individual legal
\nrights were passed in 2008. However, after the breaking out of
\nthe world economic crisis in 2008, it is evident that this individualized
\nlegal approach no longer works. On the one hand, the
\nnumber of labour disputes increased dramatically at the time,
\nand the fact that so many workers went for arbitration led to
\nthe overburdening of courts; workers had to wait, on average,
\nfor 9 months to have their claims dealt with. On the other
\nhand, many of the labour disputes are beyond the scope of
\nexisting laws, and thus could not be effectively settled by the
\ncourt. Since the individualized legal approach cannot properly
\nhandle workers\u2019 grievances, many workers resort to collective
\nmeans, such as strikes and road blockades, to defend their interests.
\nIn order to pre-empt labour unrest and prevent it from
\nerupting into social rebellion, the government is trying to absorb
\nworkers\u2019 discontent through the use of collective bargaining.
\nAlthough the proposed collective bargaining legislation has
\ngiven some room for the collective organizations of workers, it
\nremains constraining in some areas. For example, the proposed
\nlegislation only allows workers to negotiate certain items (such
\nas wages, working hours, welfare etc.) with employers. Besides,
\ncollective bargaining can only be carried out by the trade unions,
\ndespite the fact that many trade union officers are appointed
\nby the enterprises or by higher-level trade unions;
\nworkers are not allowed to elect their own representatives for
\nbargaining. The government is trying to eradicate factors that
\ncan cause social unrest through developing collective bargaining
\nlegislation; it tries to divert aggrieved workers from open
\nresistance to the bargaining procedures. And, most importantly,
\nit has delegated the party-led trade unions to take charge of
\nthe bargaining so as to ensure everything is within its control.
\nE: What is the role of party-led trade unions in promoting
\nthe collective bargaining mechanism?
\nM: A genuine collective bargaining system should include the
\nprocess of consulting their members before trade unions negotiate
\nwith employers. However, in China, a top-down approach
\nhas been used by the ACFTU. It is a common practice for it to
\nsend invitations for collective negotiations to employers and to
\nreach agreements without informing or consulting its members.
\nDemocratic participation is a process to educate workers
\nabout true unionism. But \u201cnegotiation\u201d in China is usually ends-
\noriented and the ends (e.g. the wage increment) should not
\ncontradict the conditions of the \u201clarger context\u201d. Priority to the
\n\u201clarger context\u201d, according to the Party and the government\u2019s
\ndefinition, results in \u201cnegotiations\u201d led by the administration,
\nnot workers. In view of this, in order to build up a genuine collective
\nbargaining system in China, trade unions should initiate
\na proper reform first, enabling democratic and grassroots participation,
\nso that they could truly represent workers\u2019 interests.
\nAt the moment, there are many \u201cfake\u201d trade unions at the enterprise
\nlevel; to tackle this problem, it is very crucial that workers\u2019
\ntrade union consciousness be cultivated properly, so that
\nthey understand the importance of having their trade union
\nrepresentatives being able to represent their interests and accountable
\nto them. A very critical foundation for achieving this
\nis to make trade unions financially independent from the companies
\nor the government. In the past, most enterprise trade
\nunion officials are paid by the enterprises, while the current
\ntrend is that the government is paying their salaries. Neither of
\nthese practices is ideal; they will either make the enterprise
\ntrade unions a management-union or a party-union.
\n(1) The IHLO is the Hong Kong Liaison Office of the international trade union move
\nment, which has a mandate to support and represent the international trade
\nunion movement in Hong Kong and to monitor trade union and workers’ rights
\nand political and social developments in China. Readers can learn more about it
\nfrom its website http:\/\/www.ihlo.org\/ <\/a>
\n(2) SACOM aims at bringing concerned students, scholars, labor activists, and con
\nsumers together to monitor corporate behavior and to advocate for workers\u2019
\nrights. It teams up with labor NGOs to provide in-factory training to workers in
\nSouth China. Readers can learn more about it from its website http:\/\/sacom.hk\/mission <\/a>
\nElaine Sio-ieng Hui is a PhD candidate at Kassel University,
\nGermany, and she also works as a research assistant
\nin the City University of Hong Kong.
\nMonina Won is currently the Director of the International
\nTrade Union Confederation\/Global Union Federation,
\nHong Kong Liaison Office.
\nParry Leung is the Chairperson of Students and Scholars
\nAgainst Corporate Misbehavior and a researcher on labour
\nissues in China.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=296"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/296\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=296"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=296"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/global-labour.info\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=296"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}