Labour NGOs in China

Abstract

Since their appearance in the mid-1990s, Chinese labour NGOs have mostly focused on three kinds of activities: establishing workers' centres; carrying out outreach programs on labour rights; and conducting social surveys and policy advocacy. Some scholars have strongly criticised this approach, considering it excessively unbalanced towards an individualistic and narrowly legalistic view of labour rights and thus in line with the political agenda of the Party-state. Still, in the past few years, as labour conflict intensified, a handful of labour NGOs have moved forward to adopt a more militant strategy focussed on collective bargaining and direct intervention into worker collective struggles. Based on dozens of interviews with labour activists and workers and detailed analysis of two case studies of NGO-fostered collective labour mobilisation in Southern China in 2014-2015, this paper will outline the personal and political reasons that motivated these organisations to move beyond a narrow legalistic approach and turn towards collective struggles. It will also describe the strategies that Chinese labour activists have adopted in dealing with collective cases. We will conclude by examining the main challenges that labour activists in China have to face when dealing with labour unrest and by questioning the sustainability and feasibility of this new approach in the current political climate.

Contesting Counterpublics: The Transformation of the Articulation of Rural Migrant Workers’ Rights in China’s Public Sphere, 1992–2014

“…Whereas some scholars highlight labor NGOs' role in defending workers' rights and inventing counterhegemonic discourses, 93 others warn that labor NGOs can easily be co-opted by the state and serve as "anti-solidarity machines." 94 In my opinion, it is necessary to recognize that labor NGOs are not isolated organizations; rather, they are one of the communicative institutions in China's public sphere as a field. Hence, the role labor NGOs play is a function of the political and ideological conditions in the field.…”

Promoting the associational power of workers in globalized production networks: A missed opportunity

“…They often prefer not to register as NGOs in order to avoid the very strict control measures that would then apply (Howell 2015). In 2012, of the 40 to 100 labour NGOs identified in the country, it was estimated that those that were not registered or that had registered as commercial organizations far outnumbered those officially registered as NGOs (Franceschini and Lin 2019;Howell 2021). Organizations of this kind are particularly well established in the highly industrialized area of the Pearl River Delta in southern China, where they act in close proximity to workers and have forged close ties with the territory of Hong Kong (China) and its more favourable political environment.…”

“…During the first half of the 2010s, some of them were no longer content to provide legal assistance to workers. They began to help workers organize collective action against their employers, in an attempt to promote an independent worker movement (Franceschini and Lin 2019;Froissart and Franceschini 2022). 5 Similarly, the estab lishment of elected workers' committees as part of CSR mechanisms reflected the desire to promote the associational power of the workforce outside official channels, one of the rare means of getting in touch with a collective of workers on the factory floor.…”