Editorial Essay: From Cautious Optimism to Renewed Pessimism: Labor Voice and Labor Scholarship in China

Kuruvilla, Sarosh

doi:10.1177/0019793918789390

Cited by 16 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…In terms of the underlining institutions governing the labour markets, our results show clearly the absence of a collective negotiation process and the presence of firm-based distributional mechanisms in the private sector. There is indeed a unique trade union, All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), which however acts largely as a corporate "human-resource department" (Kuruvilla, 2018). On top of that, the role of migrant workers has been acknowledged as crucial, entailing an almost unlimited supply of labour (Ngai and Huilin, 2010).…”

Section: Theoretical Interpretationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The wage-productivity nexus in the world factory economy

Dosi

Virgillito

2020

World Development

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This paper highlights new findings on the wage-productivity nexus in the World Factory Economy. After presenting the long-run macro-elasticity characterizing the phase of Chinese economic development since the eighties, we look at the wage-productivity nexus from a micro level perspective using a detailed firm-level dataset covering the period of ownership restructuring (1998-2007). A few results are quite robust under different estimation strategies. First, throughout the impressive Chinese economic miracle, elasticities of real wages to productivities-that is the ratios of rates of variations of the former to the latter-are always positive both under pooled and longitudinal estimates, both at firm-and sectoral-levels. Second, such elasticities are dramatically low, and falling in many distinct phases since the late seventies. That is, even in the manufacturing sector, the distribution of gains from the impressive labour productivity growth appears to be markedly uneven. Finally, third, governance institutions seem to matter a lot, with the majority of ownership types exhibiting firm-specific wage determination processes. The low elasticities of wages to productivity are plausibly the consequence of the massive flow of migrant workers from the rural areas to the coasts, somewhat resembling the early phase of the English Industrial Revolution with the pattern of enclosure in the countryside and massive migrations to the industrial towns.

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Section: Theoretical Interpretationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The wage-productivity nexus in the world factory economy

Dosi

Virgillito

2020

World Development

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“…President Xi reiterated in a October 2018 meeting with the new union leadership in Beijing: “Trade unions should adhere to the employee‐centered working approach; focus on the most pressing, most immediate issues that concern the employees the most; and fulfill the obligation of safeguarding workers' rights and interests and sincerely serving workers and the people” ( Xinhua, ). But the political environment for those working on labor rights issues in China, including grassroots social organizations, students, scholars, and lawyers, has been much constrained in Xi's era (Howell & Pringle, ; Kuruvilla, ).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…And many workers remain completely unprotected at all. Commentators (Howell & Pringle, ; Kuruvilla, ; Lee, ) share a pessimistic outlook on realizing workers' rights as civil society organizations are increasingly surveilled by ever‐expanding security apparatus. New workplace‐ and community‐based labor organizing strategies, and the responses of the state under President Xi, are to be investigated on the frontline.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…On the whole, representative enterprise‐level trade union organization is very rare in China (Friedman, ; Pringle, ). Filling the “representation void,” since the mid‐1990s, labor organizations from cross‐border Hong Kong and within the mainland have emerged (Kuruvilla, , p. 1020). These nongovernmental labor groups, comprising workers, social workers, academics, cause lawyers, and other concerned individuals, have provided social and cultural services, legal consultations, leadership training, and rights awareness workshops to primarily rural migrant workers.…”

Section: Trade Unions Grassroots Labor Organizations and Universitymentioning

confidence: 99%

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State and labor in China, 1978-2018

Chan

2019

Journal of Labor and Society

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China's reintegration into global capitalism has greatly transformed migration patterns and labor relations since the late 1970s. This article focuses on worker activism in this transformation. It shows that the dynamic interactions between worker mobilization and government reaction have continued to shape the forms and outcomes of labor contention. Aggrieved workers have used legal and extralegal strategies to defend their rights and interests. In response, from the early 2000s, the leadership has sought to preserve social stability by raising minimum wages, extending social insurance coverage, and expanding access to grievance redress. But freedom of association remains severely restricted. Labor nongovernmental organizations and more recently a new generation of left‐wing university students have attempted to fill the representation gap to support workers in struggle. State and labor relations remain contentious in Chinese development.

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“…Organizing labour in China remains very difficult. Since its economic opening 30 years ago, when the Pearl River Delta (PRD) of Guangdong Province turned into the factory of the world as part of GVCs, researchers have been speculating about the labour movement in the making (Kuruvilla, 2018; Pringle, 2013). However, in more recent years, China’s economic growth and development has been accompanied by a rising number of strikes and work-related protests since roughly 2003/2004 when the country’s historical labour surplus slowly began to turn into a labour shortage (Chan, 2018).…”

Section: Associational Power and Digital Technology: Worker Organizinmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exercising associational and networked power through the use of digital technology by workers in global value chains

Helmerich

Raj‐Reichert

Zajak

2020

Competition & Change

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While there are heated debates about how digitalization affects production, management and consumption in the context of global value chains, less attention is paid to how workers use digital technologies to organize and formulate demands and hence exercise power. This paper explores how workers in supplier factories in global value chains use different digital tools to exercise and enhance their power resources to improve working conditions. Combining the global value chain framework and concepts from labour sociology on worker power, the paper uses examples from the garment industry in Honduras and the footwear industry in China to show how workers used old and new digital tools to create and enhance associational and networked powers. Digital tools were used by workers and their allies in the global value chain to lower costs of communication, increase information exchange and participate in transnational campaigns during labour struggles vis-à-vis firms and governments in structurally and politically repressive environments. The paper contributes to our understanding of how workers use of digital technologies to exercise and combine different resources of power in online and offline actions in global value chains, as well as how they are confronted by new dimensions of constrains which include digital surveillance and control by the state.

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Editorial Essay: From Cautious Optimism to Renewed Pessimism: Labor Voice and Labor Scholarship in China

Cited by 16 publications

References 44 publications

The wage-productivity nexus in the world factory economy

The wage-productivity nexus in the world factory economy

State and labor in China, 1978-2018

Exercising associational and networked power through the use of digital technology by workers in global value chains

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