The International Trade Union Movement, China’s Labor Protests and Prospects for Collective Bargaining

Increasing labor unrest has provoked efforts to reform collective bargaining in China. This year the All-China Trade Union Federation (ACTFU) is launching a new campaign to set up trade union branches and to implement what is known as “collective consultation”, a less adversarial form of collective bargaining. Prof. Anita Chan discusses the reform efforts of the ACFTU and argues that fundamental preconditions for collective bargaining are still missing in China and that the ACFTU is still far from becoming an interest representation of the employees.

Anita Chan is a research professor at the China Research Centre of the University of Technology, Sydney. She has published widely on Chinese labor issues, rural China, Chinese youth and comparative labor. Among her books are China’s Workers Under Assault (2001), co-author of Chen Village Revolution to Globalization (2009), editor of Walmart in China (2011) and of Labor in Vietnam (2011). Her current research project is on the industrial relations of China’s auto industry.

Anita Chan is guest of the Project Group "Globalization, Work and Production". The current research of the project group deals with HRM and labor relations in multinational companies in the BRIC countries.

As the number of participants is limited, please reply to Martin Krzywdzinski, email: krzywdzinski [at] wzb.eu.