All-China federation of trades unions beyond reform? The slow march of direct elections

China Quarterly

Volumn , Issue 196, 2008, Pages 845-863

  Howell, Jude A ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ELECTION; ELECTORAL SYSTEM; GRASSROOTS LEVEL; INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT; POLITICAL REFORM; TRADE UNION;

ASIA; CHINA; EURASIA; FAR EAST; GUANGDONG; SHANDONG; ZHEJIANG;

EID: 66049164011     PISSN: 03057410     EISSN: 14682648     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S030574100800115X     Document Type: Article

References (85)

1. For example, a senior official ACFTU informed us of two other models: In one, trade union members nominate and select a committee, whose members then are candidates for chair and vice-chair; in another, individual members and/or organizations nominate candidates for various positions (interview A2 30.03.2004).
2. Clearly a gamut of trade union forms exists in liberal democracies. On the differences between communist and capitalist trade unionism see Craig R. Littler and Gill Palmer Littler, "Communist and capitalist trade unionism: Comparisons and contrasts," in Alex Pravda and A. Ruble Blair (eds.), Trade Unions in Communist States (Boston, Allen & Unwin, Inc., 1986), pp. 253-71.
3. Lee Lai To, Trade Unions in China 1949 to the Present (Singapore: Singapore University Press, National University of Singapore 1986), p. 159.
4. Yongshun Cai, "The resistance of Chinese laid-off workers in the reform period," The China Quarterly, No. 170 (2002), pp. 327-44
5. Anita Chan and Zhu Xiaoyang, "Disciplinary labour regimes in Chinese factories," Critical Asian Studies, Vol. 35, No. 4 (2003), pp. 559-84
6. Anita Chan, China's Workers Under Assault. The Exploitation of Labour in a Globalizing Economy (Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2001)
7. Anita Chan, "Globalisation, China's free (read bonded) labour market and the Chinese trade unions," Asia Pacific Business Review, Vol. 6, Nos. 3-4 (2000), pp. 260-81
8. Ching Kwan Lee, "From organized dependence to disorganized despotism: changing labour regimes in Chinese factories," The China Quarterly No. 157 (1999), pp. 44-71
9. Ching Kwan Lee, Gender and the South China Miracle: The Worlds of Factory Women (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998)
10. Pun Ngai, Made in China. Women Factory Workers in a Global Workplace (Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2005)
11. Qiao Jian, "Chuzai gaige qianyan de Zhongguo zhigong" ("Employees confronting reforms"), in Ru Xin, Lu Xue Yi and Li Peilin (eds.), 2002 Nian: Zhongguo shehui xingshi fenxi yu yuce (Blue Book of The Chinese Society 2002) (Beijing: Social Sciences Documentation Publishing House, 2002), pp. 243-51
12. Jackie Sheehan, Chinese Workers. A New History (London: Routledge, 1998)
13. Timothy B. Weston, "The iron man weeps. Joblessness and political legitimacy in the Chinese rust belt," in Peter Hayes Gries and Stanley Rosen (eds.), State and Society in 21st-century China. Crisis, contention and legitimation (New York & London: RoutledgeCurzon, 2004), pp. 67-86
14. Isabelle Thireau and Hua Linshan, "The moral universe of aggrieved Chinese workers: Workers' appeals to arbitration committees and letters and visits offices," The China Journal, No. 50 (2003), pp. 83-106.
15. See Feng Chen, "Subsistence crises, managerial corruption and labour protests in China," The China Journal, No. 44 (2000), pp. 41-63
16. Jude Howell, "Looking beyond incorporation: Chinese trade unions in the reform era," Mondes en Developpement, Vol. 2 No. 5 (1997 , pp. 73-90
17. Jude Howell, "The Chinese economic miracle and urban workers," The European Journal of Development Research, Vol. 9, No. 2 1997 , pp. 148-75
18. Jude Howell, "Trade unionism in China: Sinking or swimming?" The Journal of Communist Studies and Transition Politics, Vol. 19, No. 1 (2003), pp. 102-22
19. Ching Kwan Lee, Against the Law. Labor Protests in China's Rustbelt and Sunbelt (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007)
20. Philip P. Pan, "When workers organise, China's party-run unions resist," Washington Post Foreign Service (15 October 2002)
21. Jeanne L. Wilson, "'The Polish lesson': China and Poland 1980-1990," Studies in Comparative Communism, Vol. XXIII, Nos. 3/4 (1990) pp. 259-79.
22. Xie Chun Lei, "Wailai gong zizhi zuzhi chuxian Zhejiang Ruian" ("Outside workers self-organization first appears in Ruian, Zhejiang"), Nanfang zhoumo, 7 April 2002
23. Jude Howell, "New directions in civil society: Organising around marginalised interests," in Jude Howell (ed.), Governance in China (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2004), pp. 143-71.
24. Jude Howell, "Organising around women and labour in China: Uneasy shadows, uncomfortable alliances," Journal of Communist and Post-Communist Studies, No. 33 (2000), pp. 355-77.
25. By the mid-1980s, for example, the State Council had issued an order permitting trade unions to participate in meetings of all administrative organs wherever workers' interests were touched upon. Anita Chan, "Revolution or corporatism? Workers and trade unions in post-Mao China," The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs, No. 29 (1993), pp. 31-61, at p. 53.
26. Ibid.;
27. Howell, "Looking beyond incorporation," pp. 73-90
28. Howell, "Trade unionism in China," pp. 102-22
29. Bill Taylor, Chang Kai and Li Qi, Industrial Relations in China (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar 2003).
30. For further details of the three crises in the ACFTU's pre-reform history see Paul Harper, "The Party and the unions in communist China," The China Quarterly, No. 37 (1969) pp. 84-119
31. Gordon White, Jude Howell and Shang Xiaoyuan, In Search of Civil Society. Market Reform and Social Change in Contemporary China, (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1996).
32. Jeanne L. Wilson, "Labor policy in China: Reform and retrogression," Problems of Communism (1990), pp. 44-65.
33. White, Howell and Shang, In Search of Civil Society, pp. 51-52.
34. Wilson, "'The Polish lesson'," pp. 259-79
35. Wilson "Labour policy in China," pp. 44-65.
36. Harper, "The Party and the unions," pp. 84-119.
37. Pravda and Ruble, Trade Unions in Communist States, p. 3, describe classic dualism in terms of two distinct functions: The union's role in mobilizing production and the union's role of protecting members' rights and interests.
38. See Philippe C. Schmitter, "Still a century of corporatism?" in Philippe C. Schmitter and G. Lehmbruch, Trends Towards Corporatism Intermediation (London: Sage, 1979), pp. 85-129, at pp. 93-94.
39. Schmitter, "Still a century of corporatism?" p.105 distinguishes state from societal corporatism. He associates the former with authoritarian, one-Party dominant regimes and the latter with advanced capitalist, democratic welfare states.
40. In the early 1950s the ACFTU did have to mobilize workers into unions so as to reinvigorate production. See Lee, Trade Unions in China, pp. 41-44.
41. Elizabeth Perry, "Shanghai's strike wave of 1957," The China Quarterly, No. 137 (1994) pp. 1-27.
42. Ni Zhifu commented: "Our trade union is more like a 'government-run organization,' which has seldom played an independent role in organizing activities" (quoted in Wilson, "Labour policy in China," p. 55).
43. As a trade union chair from the north-east of China lamented at a workshop we organized on the WTO, labour relations and trade unions in Beijing in October 2002, "The trade union is like a government department. It is very administrative ... The trade union is a from-top-to-bottom system."
44. Chan, "Revolution or corporatism," p. 58-59.
45. Xinhua, "Quanguo zonggonghui: Jiceng gonghui zhuxi zhixuan tiaoli zhengzai qicao zong" ("ACFTU: Regulations for direct elections of grassroots trade union chairs are in the process of being formulated"), Xinhua News Agency, 26 September 2003.
46. Interview, A1, 29.03.2004, senior official, ACFTU.
47. Interview, C01, 19.05.2004, vice-chair of southern provincial trade union.
48. As far as I am aware, no such independent, rigorous surveys are available and given the sensitivity of these issues in China, we were not able to conduct any survey of workers' attitudes towards direct elections.
49. Interview, A2, 30.03.2004, senior official, ACFTU.
50. For example, interviews B07 21.04.04; A2 30.03.2004
51. Xinhua, "ACFTU: Regulations."
52. Interview, C01, 19.05.2004, vice-chair of southern provincial trade union.
53. Wang Jiaoyin, "Quanguo fuzhuxi Su Weiqing jiu jiceng gonghui zhu xi zhixuan da jizhe wen" ("Su Weiqing, vice-chair of ACFTU, answers journalists' questions on grassroots trade union direct elections"), Workers' Daily, 25 July 2003, p. 1.
54. Xinhua, "Jiceng gonghui zhuxi zhixuan: Xuanchu zhigong tiexinren" ("Direct elections of grassroots trade unions: Elect for bosom friend of workers"), Xinhua News Agency, 25 September 2003.
55. Interview, B03, Head of Grassroots Work Section of provincial trade union.
56. As a senior official in the provincial trade union pointed out, "we didn't make this issue public because it involves many issues. It's very difficult to explain it theoretically or however. I've never written an article or anything on this. If you do this, the ACFTU can say that this is not correct, that is not correct" (interview, C01, vice-chair of southern provincial trade union, 19.05.2004). Similarly the trade union head in town H expressed his strong desire to keep a low profile about the work on direct elections, not only because of potential criticism from higher levels of the ACFTU but also because direct elections might provide an entry point for "hostile forces infiltrating China." Indeed the town Party secretary had given the go-ahead to the elections but emphasized that he did not want the town be "the first in the country or province," that is, to attract the attention of the higher level authorities (interview, C09, chair of trade union, clothing factory, town H, 24.05.2004).
57. For example, see Nanfangwang, "Zhixuan bu shi zuo xiu, Guangdong 1/3 qiye jiceng gonghui zhixuan chansheng," Nanfang dushi bao, 9 July 2003.
58. Interview, A1, 29.03.2004. senior trade union cadre, ACFTU.
59. Ibid.
60. Wang Jiaoyin, "Su Weiqing answers journalists' questions."
61. During the above-mentioned Beijing workshop in 2002, there was heated discussion amongst trade union representatives and scholars as to whether international labour standards were about the protection of Western markets or a genuine concern for workers' interests.
62. See Su Weiqing's July 2003 interview in Wang Jiaoyin, "Su Weiqing answers journalists' questions," p.
63. In his interview with Worker's Daily reporter Wang Jiaoyin, Su Weiqing states that "jiben tan bu shang ye bu keneng shi juezhuyu waili liang de tuidong cai shi xiande" ("basically we cannot say that and it is not possible that this [trade union direct elections] was only realized after promotion by external forces"). See Wang Jiaoyin, "Su Weiqing answers journalists' questions," p. 1.
64. See interview, A1, 29.03.2004, senior trade union cadre, ACFTU, on interpretation of Su Weiqing's views.
65. Note in particular point 2 which states "implement the basic line, strategy and policies of the Party, obey state law, regulations" and the last point "democratic work style, consciously receive workers' and the masses' criticism and supervision."
66. Wang Jiaoyin, "Su Weiqing answers journalists' questions," p. 1.
67. For example, Su Weiqing states in his interview with Wang Jiaoyin, "conger shi gonghui geng guo de fahui dang lianxi zhigong qunzhong de qiaoliang niudai zuoyong" ("thus it enables the trade union to perform the function of serving as a bridge linking the Party and workers"), ibid. p. 1.
68. For example when discussing this coverage in the interview, a senior leader in the ACFTU commented that "there are many such reports. But the ACFTU leaders do not like to hear these." Interview A2 29.03.2004.
69. For example, a senior trade union official expressed his frustration with the slow process of authorization which he considered vital for promoting direct elections, and linked this pace to the sensitivity of the issue (interview, A2, 30.03.2004).
70. As the vice-head of the Grassroots Organization and Construction Section of a provincial trade union explained, they were pushing ahead with direct elections but their approach was one of pragmatic but innovative caution, not least because they had still not received any document from the central ACFTU stipulating if, or how, direct elections should be carried out (interview, C02, 19.05.2004).
71. For example a trade union official we interviewed (C11 24.05.2004) summarized the following methods used in the province: In some factories workers directly elect the trade union chair from multiple candidates; in others, workers nominate the candidates and the trade union committee, then elect the trade union chair and vice-chair; and in the majority, especially in newly formed trade unions, the higher-level trade union and the enterprise director nominate candidates, which is a far cry from the more democratic sea elections!
72. Interview, C11, 24.05.2004. chair of trade union, clothing factory, town H.
73. This point is made as in village elections the successful candidate has to get more than half the votes to be elected.
74. Interview, C02, 19.05.2004, vice-head of Grassroots Organization and Construction Section of southern provincial trade union.
75. Lee, Trade Unions in China, pp. 44-46.
76. Interview, C02, 19.05.2004, vice-head of Grassroots Organization and Construction Section of southern provincial trade union.
77. Interview, C11, 24.05.2004, chair of trade union, clothing factory, town H.
78. Interview, C02, 19.05.2004, vice-head of Grassroots Organization and Construction Section of southern provincial trade union.
79. Interview, C11, chair of trade union, clothing factory, town H, 24.05.2004. Similarly in an electronics company in town S, the directly elected trade union chair explained in a matter-of-fact way that extra overtime just had to be done (interview, C12, chair of trade union, printing factory, town H, 25.05.2004).
80. Temporary and contract workers were thus not allowed to join the trade union. As Lee, Trade Unions in China, pp. 48, 115, discusses, Red Guards mobilized these workers to attack trade union cadres.
81. "Shekou shi Zhongguo gonghui zhixuan de shiyantian. Gonghui zhixuan zui zao chanshengyu Guangdong" ("Shekou is China's pilot site for trade union direct elections. Trade union direct elections first took place in Guangdong"), reported on Nanfang Internet Dispatch, 9 July 2003.
82. Interview, B03 22.04.2004.
83. Interview, C01, 19.05.2004, vice-chair of southern provincial trade union.
84. Ibid.
85. Interview, C02, 19.05.2004, vice-head of Grassroots Organization and Construction Section of southern provincial trade union. For example the factory trade union chair described the owner of the colour-printing factory in town H as supportive of trade union work and unusual in his broader concern for society (interview, C12, trade union chair, colour-printing factory, town H, 24.05.2004).