Will Labour Unrest Lead to More Democratic Trade Unions in China?
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Description
China does not recognize the international labour law principle of ‘freedom of association’, nor does it recognize the right of collective bargaining as that concept is understood in international labour law—that is, the right to bargain through independent trade unions formed by workers themselves and free from outside interference. That is because China has only one lawful trade union, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) and its branches, which is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). This has been the case for many years, and there is no sign that China intends to loosen either party control of the ACFTU or the ACFTU’s monopoly on collective worker representation. Of real concern to China’ s leaders, however, is that the ACFTU has been widely seen as ‘useless’ to China’s workers, especially migrant workers in the private and foreign-invested sector, during a decade of rising labour unrest. The point was underscored by a township ACFTU official who told reporters, in the midst of the 2010 Honda strike, that workers’ efforts to secure higher wages was ‘a matter between labor and employers. It is inappropriate for the trade union to intervene’. As collective labour disputes have proliferated, however, the ACFTU has come under growing pressure from above, below, and within to reform itself and to become a more effective and genuine representative (or overseer) of China’s unruly workers. The current labour relations climate in China is reminiscent in some ways of the labour unrest of the early twentieth century in the West, out of which emerged the national framework statutes that secured workers’ rights to form unions and bargain collectively. So it may be illuminating to throw a comparative light on the current labour relations scene in China for what it might suggest about the direction of labour law reform there. Will rising labour unrest lead in China, as it did in much of the West in the early to mid-twentieth century, to the establishment of new collective labour rights? Will China move a step closer to compliance with international labour standards regarding worker representation by democratizing the official union in some manner?
Source Publication
China and ILO Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work
Source Editors/Authors
Roger Blanpain, Ulla Liukkunen, Chen Yifeng
Publication Date
2014
Recommended Citation
Estlund, Cynthia and Gurgel, Seth, "Will Labour Unrest Lead to More Democratic Trade Unions in China?" (2014). Faculty Chapters. 436.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-chapt/436
