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Trade Unions and the Quadripartite Interactions in Strike Settlement in China*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 March 2010

Feng Chen
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Abstract

Although the Chinese government has claimed to be pursuing tripartism for labour relations, the non-judicial resolution of interest conflict in enterprises is largely a process of quadripartite interaction. In addition to the government and employers, the trade unions and workers are separate players: labour strikes in China are always launched by unorganized workers rather than by trade unions, whose task is to defuse the situation. Such a quadripartite process is dominated by the government, with the trade union playing a mediating role, not only between workers and the government but also between workers and employers. The process involves certain explicit and implicit rules, as well as distinct dynamics. This research examines the institutional and social basis of quadripartite interaction and how it led to the settlement of strikes. It demonstrates that although it can effectively defuse workers' collective action, a quadripartite process of conflict resolution reflects a low degree of institutionalization of industrial relations in China.

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Type
Research Article
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The China Quarterly , Volume 201 , March 2010 , pp. 104 - 124
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2010

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Footnotes

*

I am grateful for the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong and Hong Kong Baptist University that provided generous funding for this research. My thanks also go to Qiao Jian for his sharing with me his insights into this topic in particular and China's labour issues in general as well as his valuable research assistance.

References

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16 http://www.acftu.org/template/10005/file.jsp?aid=72428.

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19 State-owned enterprises should not be regarded as a distinct party, as they are still under the effective influence of the government.

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21 Strikes unauthorized by trade unions are called “wildcat strikes” in Western industrialized countries and are illegal. Some Chinese labour scholars use the same term to describe strikes in China. However, since Chinese trade unions can never authorize a strike, because there is no legal right to strike, it does not make sense to distinguish “wildcat” and “legal” strikes in the Chinese context.

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23 In the interview, one enterprise union cadre pointed out that there are only two parties in China's labour relations: the government and employers, given that the union is just part of the government. But some Chinese scholars characterize China's labour relations as a “tripartite plus one” (i.e. the government, trade unions, employers plus workers) structure.

24 For discussion on local governments' suppression of popular protests, see Cai, Yongshun, “Local governments and suppression of popular resistance in China,” The China Quarterly, No. 193 (2008), pp. 24–42Google Scholar.

25 See Chen, Feng, “Union power in China: source, operation, and constraints,” Modern China, Vol. 35, No. 6 (2009), pp. 662–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

26 Ibid.

27 See Feng Chen, “Between the state and labour.”

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30 FDI from Asia (Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau) accounted for 17.5%, from the United States and Australia 16%, and from Europe 9%. Ibid.

31 Laowugong refer to those people who are not registered residents in cities where they find employment, and are often unskilled workers with a very short or even no contract. The majority of this group of people used to be called “peasant workers” (nongmingong).

32 However, the minimum wage of the DLDA before the strike was 500 yuan.

33 http://www.dda.gov.cn/zwxx/info/792_29441.htm.

34 Zhan Yanhui, “Dalian rizi qiye lianhe bagong shijian diaocha” (“An investigation into strike incidents in Japanese-owned enterprises in Dalian”), Fenghuang zhoukan (Phoenix Weekly), 14 February 2000.

35 For the role of worker leaders in labour protests, see Chen, Feng, “Worker leaders and framing factory-based resistance,” in Kevin O'Brien (ed.), Popular Protest in China (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008), pp. 88–107Google Scholar.

36 Investigative report by the DLDA Trade Union.

37 Interview, 3 August 2006.

38 Zhan Yanhui, “An investigation into strike incidents.”

39 Investigative report by the DLDA Trade Union.

40 Interview, 3 August 2006.

41 Investigative report by the DLDA Trade Union.

42 Interview, 3 August 2006.

43 Interview, 1 August 2006.

44 Zhang Yanhui, “An investigation into strike incidents.”

45 Ibid.

46 Interview, 3 August 2006.

47 Interview, 1 August 2006.

48 One of the enterprises hit by the strikes reduced the post-strike wage (700 yuan) to 650 yuan after the government announced the minimum wage. This caused a new strike on 2 August 2006.

49 Ibid.

50 Interview, 3 August 2005.

51 For a discussion on the duration of strikes in some industrialized nations, see Jackson, Michael, Strikes: Industrial Conflict in Britain, USA, and Australia (London: Wheatsheaf Books, 1987), pp. 72–75Google Scholar.

52 Being unable to handle “group incidents” would damage their political career.

53 Interview, 1 August 2006.

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