Strike and changing workplace relations in a Chinese global factory

Chan, Chris

doi:10.1111/j.1468-2338.2008.00513.x

Cited by 35 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 30 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Official statistics on strikes are absent in China, as workers or unions are not granted the right to strike. Nevertheless, it is clear that an increasing number of labour disputes and workers' protests, which often bypass the official trade unions, have emerged in China in the past decade (Chan, 2011;Chan CKC, 2009;Chan and Pun 2009;Chen, 2010). The number of labour disputes handled by the labour dispute arbitration committees at all levels in China has jumped dramatically, from 120,191 cases in 1999 to 693,465 cases in 2008 (China Labour Statistical Yearbook, various years).…”

Section: Chinese Trade Unionism In Transitionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The Dynamics and Dilemma of Workplace Trade Union Reform in China: The Case of the Honda Workers’ Strike

Chan

Hui

2012

Journal of Industrial Relations

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Based on a case study of the Honda workers' strike and its impact on workplace industrial relations, this article explores the potential of and barriers to workplace trade union reform in China. A rise in workers' collective actions has put political pressure on the All China Federation of Trade Unions to promote effective trade unionism and create a vital foundation for exercising democratic union representation in the workplace. The main barrier to effective workplace unionism, however, is the lack of external support for workers' unionization efforts. On the one hand, the lower-level local trade unions fail to comply with their legal responsibility because of their bureaucratic nature and structural integration into the patron-client relationship between the local state and the global capital. On the other hand, support for workers from civil society is handicapped by the party-state's opposition to independent labour organizing. This dilemma has forced the higher trade union federation to intervene directly in workplace trade union reform and promote state-led wage bargaining.

show abstract

Section: Chinese Trade Unionism In Transitionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The Dynamics and Dilemma of Workplace Trade Union Reform in China: The Case of the Honda Workers’ Strike

Chan

Hui

2012

Journal of Industrial Relations

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…We did not detect widespread disillusionment among workers about this, perhaps as such people were seen as having the ability to perform a leadership role. In case studies of strikes and protests in Southern China, Chan and Pun () highlight the leadership of ‘technicians, skilled workers and line supervisors’ (p. 302), noting the ‘similar prominent role of privileged groups in the early stages of struggle in the West’ (p. 302). Perhaps more significant is how union chairs and committee members were chosen.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Developing Role of Unions in China's Foreign‐Invested Enterprises

Chan

Snape

Luo

et al. 2016

Brit J Industrial Rel

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article evaluates the development of Chinese enterprise unions, drawing on case-study evidence from foreign-invested enterprises in the Pearl River Delta. Findings suggest that it was difficult for such employers to resist the establishment of an enterprise union. However, they generally sought to co-opt the union to meet organizational needs. Management strategy was critical in shaping the union's role, and our evidence suggests that this was influenced by factors such as home-country policies, the expectations of overseas customers, management ideology and pressures from the ACFTU and the Party-State to comply with the requirement for a union. The implications for the role of unions are evaluated.

show abstract

“…However, such worker obedience and quiescence is called into question by the overwhelming evidence of the increasing number of worker strikes and labour shortages in Chinese and Vietnamese manufacturing sectors (Cai and Wang, 2010;Chan, 2009;Kam Wing, 2010;Clarke, 2006;Sunoo, 2007). In Vietnam, 90 percent of rural-urban migrant workers find a job within one month of arrival, and almost a quarter get a job within the first week (GSO & UNFPA, 2006: 26).…”

Section: Economic Contradictionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Why do corporate codes of conduct fail? Women workers and clothing supply chains in Vietnam

Hoang

Jones

2012

Global Social Policy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Despite criticisms of their derivation and implementation, corporate codes of conduct (CoCs) continue to dominate debates on Corporate Social Responsibility and the informal regulation of worker exploitation and abuse by 'sweatshops' supplying northern multinational corporations (MNCs KeywordsSweatshop labour, codes of conduct, corporate social responsibility, supply chains, women workers Corporate codes of conduct (CoCs) have become a critical aspect of debates over business responsibilities to reduce abuse and exploitation of workers by suppliers in developing societies. Attention has focused particularly on high-profile, 'brand' corporations sourcing goods such as footwear and clothing for retailers and consumers in the global 'north'. The public aims of CoCs are to improve the material welfare of workers in contract suppliers' factories, to curb or remove arbitrary and coercive exercises of managerial power and authority, and to substantiate workers' human rights, such as freedom of association and gender rights. A snap verdict of CoC effectiveness in these areas would be largely negative (Hale and Wills, 2007;Raworth and Coryndon, 2004;War On Want, 2008). With ineffective monitoring and unauthorized subcontracting, brands and retailers often fail to track their producers and hence enforce CoCs -not only at factories in developing countries (Level Works, 2009), but even in the heartland of some brands' headquarters, such as the UK (Dispatches, 2010). Through new evidence from garment factories in Vietnam, we challenge and investigate a key assumption of both CoC supporters and some critics: the feasibility of a unilinear corporate chain of command through supply firms' managements into local workplaces.We focus, first, on oversimplifications of corporate power and control presupposing an underlying principal-agent conception in many -especially prescriptive accounts -of corporate responsibility via CoCs. This part of the analysis derives from existing accounts that point to the importance of a wider complex of institutional relationships within which multinational corporations' (MNC) transactions operate: both the globalized industrial and market structures of the clothing industry and the varying socio-political and cultural contexts affecting sweatshop supplier enterprises. The second focus links this 'macro' analysis with new micro-level data on CoC changes and the political economy of labour relations among clothing workers and firms in Vietnam. This data informs our second and more distinctive argument: powerful explanation for CoC's ineffectiveness than those based on deficiencies in the application of codes.These arguments are developed in four sections. The first outlines the general debates over the purposes and role of CoCs in supply relationships between western MNCs and contractors in developing societies. The second section examines the complications posed for these arrangements by the complex economic and social institutions governing supply chains. The third section presents the evide...

show abstract

Strike and changing workplace relations in a Chinese global factory

Cited by 35 publications

References 30 publications

The Dynamics and Dilemma of Workplace Trade Union Reform in China: The Case of the Honda Workers’ Strike

The Dynamics and Dilemma of Workplace Trade Union Reform in China: The Case of the Honda Workers’ Strike

The Developing Role of Unions in China's Foreign‐Invested Enterprises

Why do corporate codes of conduct fail? Women workers and clothing supply chains in Vietnam

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About