Advocating Workers' Collective Rights: The Prospects and Constraints Facing ‘Collective Bargaining’ NGOs in the Pearl River Delta, 2011–2015

Abstract

Labour struggles are frequent in China, but because workers’ organizational resources are controlled by the state, these struggles have been fragmented. Targeting this problem, a group of internationally connected labour NGOs emerged in the Pearl River Delta between 2011 and 2015. These organizations sought to advocate workers’ collective rights by helping workers organize outside the state system. Adopting a relational approach to the study of civil society, this article examines the impact of these NGOs. Based on ethnographic research and a unique data set, it argues that although the organizational skills shared by these NGOs could to some extent sustain workers’ collective actions, they could not be used to integrate the fragmented struggles. Due to the lack of institutional guarantees, activists’ interventions can generate more mistrust than solidarity. The preference of the key donor for a more confrontational and independent labour movement further widened the gap between NGOs and workers, and distracted the NGOs from channels that had the potential to influence policy. The study contributes to an understanding of social movements and NGO intervention by emphasizing the necessity of locating advocacy channels within the state, and the importance of recognizing and maintaining the complex ecology of civil society.

The Interstitial Emergence of Labor NGO Activism in China and Its Contradicting Institutionalization, 1996–2020

“…Besides familiarizing trainees with theories in labor studies, the workshops invited labor activists from abroad to talk about their labor-mobilizing experiences. This effort was echoed by a group of labor lawyers in Shenzhen, who believed that NGOs in rural migrant workers' community could intervene in workers' factory-based collective actions (Zhou and Yan 2020). Since 2009, the lawyers also held several workshops for training activists.…”

“…Labor NGOs have been able to promote self-help networks in migrant workers’ communities (Froissart 2005; Chan 2013; Xu 2013), raise workers’ class consciousness (Smith and Pun 2018; Hui 2020), orchestrate the fragmented factory-based collective actions (Chen and Yang 2017; Fu 2018), and formulate counter-hegemonic discourses (Li 2021). These organizations, however, can be easily co-opted by the state and corporations (Franceschini 2014; Howell 2015; Lee 2011), and that they lack autonomy vis-à-vis international donors (Zhou and Yan 2020). However, almost all the above-mentioned studies have been carried out at the micro- or meso-level (e.g., Chan 2013; Xu 2013; Li 2021).…”

“…formulate counter-hegemonic discourses (Li 2021). These organizations, however, can be easily co-opted by the state and corporations (Franceschini 2014;Howell 2015;Lee 2011), and that they lack autonomy vis-à-vis international donors (Zhou and Yan 2020). However, almost all the above-mentioned studies have been carried out at the micro-or meso-level (e.g., Chan 2013;Xu 2013;Li 2021).…”

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“…However, NGOs with transformative agendas insisted on doing this only if they could also undertake training in the factories, which would allow them to raise issues of legal rights and engage in consciousness-raising (Pun 2005). Some labour NGOs also became involved in supporting workers in collective bargaining processes, especially during and after the Honda strikes in 2010 (Zhou and Yan 2020).…”