Labour relations and labour unrest in China

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1 659047WES / Work,employment and societybook review essays book-review2016 Book review essays Labour relations and labour unrest in China Work, employment and society 2017, Vol. 31(1) The Author(s) 2016 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalspermissions.nav DOI: / journals.sagepub.com/home/wes Jessica Pflueger Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Germany Antonia Enssner Universität Würzburg, Germany Anita Chan (ed.) Chinese Workers in Comparative Perspective Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2015, $24.95 pbk, (ISBN: ), 296 pp. Parry P Leung Labor Activists and the New Working Class in China: Strike Leaders Struggles London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, 55 hbk, (ISBN: ), 212 pp. Lu Zhang Inside China s Automobile Factories Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014, 60 hbk, (ISBN: ), 258 pp. With more than 800 million 1 workers, China provides the world s largest workforce. It is also well-known for having developed one of the most exploitative labour regimes in modern history (Chan, 2001). Therefore, it is not surprising that in recent years there have been numerous signs of growing resistance in the workshop of the world : several strike waves have drawn public and academic attention; collective actions are said to have become bolder and more aggressive they tend to be more frequent, to involve more people and to endure longer (Cooke, 2008). Hence, China is sometimes even referred to as the centre of world labor unrest (Silver, 2003), with an emerging new working class (Chan and Pun, 2009) asking for their rights and fighting injustice. Accordingly, over the last 10 years a fairly intensive debate on labour relations and labour unrest in China has emerged. The three books which are being reviewed here fit neatly into this discourse. All of them use empirical evidence (mostly qualitative) to shed light on topics which thus far have been under-represented in Chinese labour studies. Although all three authors are social scientists by training, they look at Chinese labour from very different perspectives: Parry P Leung and Lu Zhang offer insight from within

2 186 Work, employment and society 31(1) by providing detailed ethnographic accounts of workers subjectivity, conditions and collective action. In contrast, Anita Chan, one of the founders of modern China labour studies, calls for a comparative perspective that analyses Chinese workers in relative terms. Her collection thereby highlights macro structures like the role of the state and of globalization as driving forces of change. In Labor Activists and the New Working Class in China, Parry P Leung presents results from his PhD research. He takes a well-known ambivalence of Chinese labour studies as a starting point: on the one hand, there is growing evidence of a process of radicalization of Chinese workers. On the other hand, labour activism in China cannot be seen as an organized labour movement, as protests often remain cellular, localized, and fragmented (Lee, 2007); a fact which is often explained by the political constraints of an authoritarian regime. The author addresses the following questions: What are the major mechanisms that lead to the collective mobilization of factory workers in strike actions? More specifically, without an organization, how can action be organized? Why have these strike actions not transformed into an organized labour movement? To investigate these questions, Leung builds on Silver s (2003) conception of power structures, but without emphasizing the importance of representation and unions in labour activism, because the ACFTU (All- China Federation of Trade Unions) does not act like a genuine worker union. Instead, he concentrates on strike action initiators, to understand their feelings of injustice, the way they realize workers power within a struggle, their interaction with other social forces, and in particular the leadership of worker struggles in a setting without any formal association (p. 20). Leung applies ethnographic methods to understand worker activists and workers strike actions. The author lived in worker communities in the Pearl River Delta for several months and collected data via participant observation of workers community activities, workplaces and protests, as well as by interviewing key informants in so-called aftermath-of-the-strike interviews. Four strike cases in Guangzhou s jewellery industry and one strike in Shenzhen s electronic industry are reconstructed mainly through interviews and are presented in detail. On the basis of his data, Leung tries to extract the specific Organizing Mechanisms of strikes in China. Some Organizing Mechanisms are in line with previous research; for example, when he points out that strikes in China were typically not supported by any trade union and that they commonly took place before negotiations (since there were mostly no structures of collective bargaining). Other characteristics seem to challenge mainstream assumptions: Leung insists that strike actions were no longer spontaneous. They tended to be planned even though it was difficult to maintain workers support after strike actions. This was especially true since the dismissal of strike activists was a common management response, which (quite successfully ) suppressed the institutionalization of labour movements. Leung also shows exemplarily and this is a strong point of the study how and why Chinese workers turned into activists, their typical strategies to overcome the risk of being reported, and the difference that leadership can make to success or failure of a strike action. He develops a rough typology of strike action of the new working class in China by distinguishing between spontaneous strikes, activist-led

3 Book review essays 187 strikes and activist-led strikes with a sustained activist core. Finally, he reflects on challenges ahead for the emerging organized labour movement. In summary, Leung asks important and interesting questions. Strike leadership, or, more precisely, the lack of it, is a key difference between Chinese labour protests and the organization of strikes in western countries. Leung illuminates how strikes emerge in an authoritarian state by tracing the informal agency of strike organizers. His empirical data vividly illustrate the experiences of individual strike activists in China; a story which is seldom told because it is difficult to research. This strong empirical focus is a strength of the book although methodologically some questions remain; for example, the case selection (why additionally Shenzhen?), and, more importantly, the scope of the results. What do the outcomes stand for? For workers in the Pearl River Delta or in China? In her book Inside China s Automobile Factories, Lu Zhang combines a detailed ethnographic account with systematic analysis that links her findings on the shop floor to national and global economic dynamics. Her aim is to develop a theoretical framework that gives us an insight into the future trajectory of labour relations in China. By tracing the historical development of the Chinese automobile industry and outlining its global linkages, Zhang typifies China as a latecomer situated at the end of the product cycle where profitability is smaller. Thus, the contradiction between legitimacy and profitability (p. 11) that characterizes capitalist development is more acute in China. Strong revolutionary and state-socialist legacies increase these contradictions even more. Zhang reveals that China s large automobile assemblers and the state try to overcome this problem with workforce dualism created by the extensive use of temporary agency labour, a common practice in other countries around the world. This macro perspective is contrasted with an in-depth analysis of micro-level labour relations in the Chinese automobile industry. For this, Zhang spent 20 months in the field visiting seven large auto assembly factories in six Chinese cities between 2004 and She conducted an incredible 319 qualitative interviews with workers, managers, factory party and union cadres, local government officials and others. These data show that the above-stated workforce dualism generated new worker grievances and resistance and thus formed the basis of the dynamic interaction that was typical of labour relations in the Chinese automobile industry. Although the majority of temporary workers had a rural background in contrast to the mostly urban formal workers, these boundaries were becoming blurred as an increasing number of urban youths entered the labour market through labour agencies. Zhang points out that the crucial question is whether temporary workers can gain support from core workers in their struggle in order to successfully oppose management. Despite their reputation of being relatively quiescent due to high wages and generous benefits, this is not too unlikely. She finds that in her study, core autoworkers increasingly engaged in protest activities ranging from slowdowns through filing labour dispute cases up to wildcat strikes. These were caused by a leaner and meaner work regime with increased work intensity, reduced job security and stagnant wages. The combination of workplace bargaining power and major grievances in China s automobile industry is similar to that in other countries and contributes to rising labour unrest in this industry. It is an advantage of the book that it does not purely focus on protests, as does a considerable part of studies on Chinese labour relations. The sector is well chosen as

4 188 Work, employment and society 31(1) automobile workers have played an important role in broader labour movements and succeeded in transforming relations within the factory and society (p. 11) in other countries throughout history (see also Silver, 2003). Therefore, the conclusions she draws for the future of the whole Chinese working class seem plausible. However, the amount of detail and the lack of a clear line of argumentation can make it difficult to follow the author s logic. Also, more information about her methods of data analysis would have been useful. The major theoretical innovation of the book can be seen in the departure from the concept of labour force dualism in China based on the fuzzy concept of migrant workers ; a notion which is widely employed by Chinese labour scholars but seldom clearly defined. Instead, Zhang argues that nowadays the root of this dualism is to be found in the distinction between formal and temporary workers. Hence, Zhang s book is a valuable addition to on-going debates, even if the ambitious aim of an insightful combination of ethnographic empirical data and macro theory seems only partly reached. Ethnographic studies like Leung s and Zhang s offer plentiful insights into Chinese labour. In order to conceptualize these findings and attach them to existing theories and discourses, a comparative perspective is helpful. This is the aim of Anita Chan s latest book, Chinese Workers in Comparative Perspective, which has one overarching motto: from exceptionalism to comparativism. Chan s point of departure is that in the study of Chinese labour the focus has been almost entirely on China itself, thereby essentializing its uniqueness. Instead, she suggests analysing Chinese labour in relative terms to see if Chinese characteristics are also shared by other nations. In her edited volume, labour scholars from four continents collect evidence that either contrasts China with other countries or examines and compares various sectors and regions within China (statesector and migrant workers, South and North China) in order to get a better grasp of the issues and not measure China against an ideal Western model (p. 4). Within the book, some authors focus on China s historical and structural developments (e.g. Lüthje, Liu et al.), others pay attention to labour standards (Lin, Butollo, Siu, Chan et al.) and others again concentrate on workers rights and representation (Chan/ Chiu, Quan, Nice/Cooney). While some chapters rely on comparisons with similar cases (such as other post-socialist countries, like Russia and Vietnam), others draw on most different cases (such as the US) in order to learn more about the future trajectory of Chinese labour relations. Tim Pringle, for example, compares the prospects of trade union reform in China with Russia, whose similarities allow us to compare if not an orange with an orange at least an orange with a lemon (p. 210). Both countries have been affected by the transition from a state-socialist to a capitalist market economy via a hybrid phase referred to as the socialist market economy ; both countries witness depressingly familiar injustices in the workplace. Also, party-sponsored trade unions in China and the traditional trade union in Russia share a common inheritance: their main purpose during the pre-reform era was directive implementation rather than labor representation (p. 210). He argues that chances for trade union reform from above are fairly low in both countries. His comparison of trade unions in China and Russia shows that despite significant differences between them some Chinese characteristics can also be found elsewhere.

5 Book review essays 189 In the sense of a minimal contrast, both Katie Quan and Kaxton Siu provide interesting assessments of China and another country under one-party rule: Vietnam. Quan compares collective bargaining experiments in both countries on the basis of interviews she conducted with key stakeholders and the participants of several training sessions on collective bargaining that the author held. She comes to the conclusion that although China and Vietnam generally have similar labour histories, collective bargaining is developing in very different ways. While in Vietnam sectoral bargaining is evolving, collective bargaining in China remains mostly local. However, the increasing number of elected grassroots union officials in China can also be seen as a significant step forward (p. 191). Her contribution is informative as to one major advantage of cross-country comparisons: she demonstrates how both countries may benefit from learning from each other. Siu explores a different subject, namely the working and living conditions of workers in the garment industries of both countries. He shows (on the basis of factory-gate surveys) that workers subjective perception of the conditions vary systematically in China and Vietnam. Thereby he illustrates another strength of comparative approaches: the ability to add new categories into current discussions, namely the interplay between Chinese workers objective conditions and their subjective desires in production and consumption. Mingwei Liu and his co-authors, on the other hand, compare China with the other exceptional nation : the United States. By comparing the two biggest players in the global economy they contribute to the on-going convergence divergence debate. Instead of favouring either side, the authors argue that globalization has led to both convergence and divergence in Chinese and American industrial relations (IR) systems. They highlight that globalization effects, and the impact of neoliberal developments in each country, vary strongly due to differences in the stage of economic development, the role of the state in industrial relations and the structure of the trade union system. Severe sweatshop conditions led to an increasing number of strikes and protests in China. Therefore, being the most powerful IR actor in China, the state reacted by strengthening the trade union and improving workers protection with new labour laws. In the US, in contrast, the number of strikes decreased as the labour force became increasingly fragmented. The American state traditionally plays only a minimal role in IR. Hence, labour market regulations weakened. This contrast of extreme cases shows that regardless of the existing political and economic system, unregulated globalization and a free global market stand in persistent opposition to workers interests. Also, the comparison exposes the weaknesses of both trade union systems. Being highly centralized and firmly integrated into the political system, the Chinese trade unions lack the necessary autonomy to effectively represent their members. The decentralized organization of US trade unions, on the other hand, leads to a lack of political leverage and difficulties in organizing workers. All in all, the book s different chapters make a strong case for Chan s passionate and highly convincing plea for a comparative perspective on Chinese labour. The contrasting selection of articles offers insights into a broad variety of topics, perspectives and countries, which (quite understandably) is at the expense of a more cohesive theoretical argumentation of the book. The editor herself states in the introduction that this collection is only the beginning, a hope that we share.

6 190 Work, employment and society 31(1) The three books show that the sheer size of China s territory and population, and the contradictory developments within its socialist/post-socialist context pose a problem to those seeking to understand Chinese labour relations. To cope with these challenges, typically two differing frameworks are being used in academia today: on the one hand, essentialist notions highlight China s exceptionalism, often using the catchphrase socialism with Chinese characteristics. Such a perspective runs the risk of overrating China s uniqueness; China ultimately remains especially mysterious and incomprehensible. On the other hand, universalistic notions underline China s similarities and convergences with other countries and thereby potentially overemphasize occidental modernization processes. Taken together, the reviewed books show how important it is to have both perspectives to understand Chinese labour: Leung concentrates on the micro perspective, his book is an example of an analysis from within which explores the particularities of labour struggles in China (e.g. lack of formal organization). Zhang attempts to combine in-depth micro-level analysis with a macro-level theoretical framework to portray the specific situation of Chinese automotive workers within a larger (historical and global) context. Finally, Chan s macro perspective shows how a comparative perspective enables us to systematically integrate similarities with other countries into Chinese labour studies (e.g. neoliberal trends and trade union reform). As to the future of Chinese labour relations, the books have differing assessments: firstly, Leung envisions a convergence of Chinese labour relations towards the South China model, whereas Zhang and several authors of Chan s edition (e.g. Lüthje) emphasize that the structural differences between industries and regions continuously reproduce the current diversity. Secondly, Leung and Zhang leave a fairly optimistic impression. They both assume that China s New Working Class is getting stronger and Chinese workers will be able to improve their working and living conditions. Quite a few contributions in Chan s book are more sceptical (e.g. Butollo, Chan et al., Lin, Pringle). The authors seem to agree, however, that a major obstacle to the institutionalization of the labour movement is the segmentation of the Chinese working class (temporary vs regular workers, migrants vs locals, SOE workers vs non-soe workers) and that the future of China s New Working Class depends on workers ability to develop a shared vision. Note 1. References Chan A (2001) China s Workers Under Assault: The Exploitation of Labor in a Globalizing Economy. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe. Chan CK and Pun N (2009) The making of a new working class? A study of collective actions of migrant workers in South China. The China Quarterly 198: Cooke FL (2008) The dynamics of employment relations in China: an evaluation of the rising level of labour disputes. Journal of Industrial Relations 50(1): Lee CK (2007) Against the Law: Labor Protests in China s Rustbelt and Sunbelt. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press. Silver BJ (2003) Forces of Labor: Workers Movements and Globalization since Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.