Chris is a labour law researcher, specialising in China and the right to strike. He spent 27 years in the SA union movement. Chris now lives in Canberra. More →
The U.S. Economy and China: Capitalism, Class, and Crisis
by Martin Hart-Landsberg
The U.S. economy is in bad shape and people are understandably seeking solutions.
Many, encouraged by mainstream media and politicians, believe that China’s trade policies bear primary responsibility for the structural decay of our economy and that recovery will require, above all, pressuring the Chinese [...]
Will the New Year see a resumption of collective bargaining in China?
In December 2009, a magazine article exposed the extent to which labour relations in China had deteriorated over the last year, with enterprises deliberately taking advantage of the government’s leniency during the global financial crisis to exploit their workforce. The writer called on [...]
Actually, the number of labour dispute has been escalating since the late of 2008. In the first half of 2009, labour dispute in the Yangtze River Delta increased about 4 folds compared to the same period last year. The labour dispute resolution team is seriously shorthanded with one labour dispute arbitration or judge having to handle over 200 cases in a year. Lack of capacity to solve labour dispute cases further contributes to the rise of unofficial labour actions.
Going it alone: a new report on the state of the workers’ movement in China
China’s workers are taking to the streets in ever increasing numbers.
Angered by management abuses, and emboldened by the passage of new labour legislation, they are staging strikes, roadblocks and protests to demand the payment of wages in arrears, better working conditions [...]
Tiananmen Square
In 1989, in Adelaide, on behalf of unions, I spoke at a protest rally condemning the crack-down and arguing that ’socialism’ has to be invigorated by democracy…albeit Chinese style. This has not happened as Deng’s power brutally crushed dissent and opened up the Chinese economy for capitalist profit-making.
For an exciting novel, read [...]
The Bad and the Good of the Wal-Mart ACFTU Collective Agreement by China Labor News Translations, www.clntranslations.org
CLNT has obtained and translated the collective agreement in effect between one of the individual unionized Wal-Mart stores in China and the responsible local trade union committee. It represents the template agreement that has been followed by all [...]
The way forward for trade unions and workers in China: A new research report from CLB
http://www.clb.org.hk/en/node/100424
The mass unemployment, lower wages and job insecurity created by the global economic crisis threatens the livelihoods of millions of Chinese workers, especially rural migrants who have little or no social security net to fall back on. Will the Chinese [...]
China won’t revise labor contract law amid financial crisis: lawmaker www.chinaview.cn
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-03/09/content_10979130.htm
BEIJING, March 9 (Xinhua) — China will not revise the Labor Contract Law to compromise workers’ rights as suggested by some people to help enterprises cope with the global financial turmoil, a legislator [...]
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