(Note: half of GLS's staff is travelling in China, the other half is busy on different assignments, so we will be posting only sporadically until early May.)
In our recently released report, Why China Matters: Labor Rights in the Era of Globalization and in a subsequent post, Labor’s Opening to China, we discuss new and on-going efforts by global labor organizations to open a dialogue with the All China Federation of Trade Unions, China’s only legal union. We argue in some detail that the talks are long overdue but that they pose problems for both sides.
Western unions want a presence on the ground in China where so many of the companies that employ their members have set up shop. But they worry about giving their stamp of approval to a state/party affiliated union that may sign sweetheart agreements with global corporations. And indeed, at the local level, the ACFTU, by all accounts, often functions as a management dominated company union in the workplaces where it is present.
The ACFTU wants global recognition and support in a world increasingly skeptical of Chinese institutions but they must also worry that Western unions often talk cooperation abroad and practice protectionism at home. China bashing is still a standard part of the repertory of many unions despite the fact that it is US based and other foreign corporations—not the Chinese government—that drive much of China’s export oriented economy.
Both sets of concerns are legitimate.
It is a given that unions, like other organizations, have institutional, industrial , and national interests that they seek to promote and these interests shape their actions abroad to a significant extent. But unions are also learning an important lesson of modern diplomacy: it is essential to talk even with those with whom you may not agree. Engagement need not be a sign of approval, but rather a search for common interests. It is in this spirit that non-Chinese labor organizations and the ACFTU should conduct their dialogues.
Common employers/common interests
The tie that binds all of the parties to the discussions together is the role of global companies in China. These companies employ millions of workers around the world. They have moved enormous numbers of jobs to China to produce goods that they then export to markets everywhere. Foreign owned global corporations account for 60% of Chinese exports to the US. In 2004, the retail giant Wal-Mart was China's 8th larget trading partner ahead of Russia, Austrailia, and Canada.The “Chinese threat” is less about trade with China than it is about trade with Wal-Mart and GE or any of the other of the hundreds of Fortune 500 companies that do business in China.
Global corporations are partners with the Chinese government in the country’s export oriented development model. They design the products and create supply chains that employ Chinese workers, at very low wages, often in sweatshop conditions. In fact, most of the tainted toys and medicines that have been blamed on Chinese exports to the US were designed by US based firms and manufactured by their contractors.
Any effort to raise standards for Chinese workers and resist the global race to the bottom must focus on these companies. Furthermore, they are much more responsive to global public pressure than is the Chinese state. That is the reason global corporations should be the primary target in a campaign to improve wages and working conditions, tackle environmental problems, and improve business practices in China.
For its part, the ACFTU has focused its recruitment efforts on non-Chinese firms. Today, the Chinese union claims that it has agreements with 73% of all foreign enterprises in China. It is apparent that the union wants a firmer foothold in these companies.
Last year, a convergence of interest between global unions and their allies outside of China and the ACFTU and its allies inside of China helped ensure passage of the Labor Contract Law which will increase labor rights and may help improve wages and working conditions in China. This converge of interest could be a model for future cooperation.
We think the best way forward is to avoid grand proclamations and set aside some of the most contentious matters that have prevented talks in the past in favor of building trust by making real progress on concretes issues of mutual concern. There are many of these. Here are five.
Defending and enforcing the Contract Labor Law
Global unions and the ACFTU have a common interest in defending and the new Labor Contract Law against current moves to weaken some of its key provisions. The South China Morning Post wrote on March 17, 2008:
The mainland’s controversial labour contract law has not only sparked tensions between workers and their bosses in the country dubbed the factory of the world, it has provoked unprecedented grumblings at the top of the Chinese political system—a sign that the welfare of workers has moved finally up the agenda….
The new law requires bosses to sign long-term contracts with their workers, abide by restrictions on overtime and boost welfare provisions. The new regime has been met with yelps of pain from employers and warnings that it will force many of them to the wall because of increased hiring costs….
The powerful All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce has also thrown its weight against the law, warning of increasing labour disputes and the demise of manufacturers and service providers….
[Meanwhile]…the All-China Federation of Trade Unions joined calls opposing revision to the law.”
Indeed there are battles going on in a variety of venues over the enforcement of the current law. One of the first things to emerge from any talks should be an agreement to work together on a joint campaign to ensure that foreign companies fully implement the new law.
Corporate transparency
A project on corporate transparency could benefit both Chinese and non-Chinese unions. Global corporations create complex and secretive supply chains, making it difficult to trace how, where, and under what conditions products are made.
Global labor organizations and the ACFTU should be able to work together to demand transparency. Each would benefit. Corporations should be required to reveal the identity of contractors in their supplier chains and other details of their business practices in China. The secrecy with which corporations act in China is at odds with the transparency needed for the rule of law and social accountability. If labor laws, product safety standards, and environmental regulations are to be enforced, public access to a wide range of information is required.
Global warming
China has just passed the US as the leading total emitter of green house gases—the US still far outpaces China on a per capita basis. A significant amount of those emissions is caused by the production of goods to be exported to the US and other countries. Both global unions and the ACFTU have taken some steps to address this issue. This issue will change the shape of work everywhere in the coming decades: each party has a direct interest in confronting it. Discusssions on the “greening” of work could result in future collaboration. And each party can benefit immediately from information sharing.
Occupational health and safety
China’s workplaces are often extremely dangerous. Workplace injuries and diseases are the highest in the world. Many global unions have decades of experience fighting for safe working conditions and could offer the ACFTU important help establishing safety standards, with employee training, and with suggestions for how to monitor workplace conditions.
Chinese workers abroad
Global unions and the ACFTU should take up the issue of the thousands of Chinese workers sent abroad to Africa, Latin American, and elsewhere to work on construction and other projects. As China reaches out to the world this practice is increasing. It sometimes results in tensions with local workers fearful of losing their jobs, but it also involves the exploitation of the workers sent abroad. In March a strike by Chinese workers on a project in Equatorial Guinea resulted in the deaths of two strikers and the injury of others as result of a violent conflict with local authorities trying to break the strike. 400 workers had to be quickly repatriated to China. Such incidents are bound to increase as more Chinese workers are sent abroad on temporary assignments. Now is the time to begin a global discussion on the growing temporary migrant workforce.
These discussions are developing at a time when the Chinese government is subject to international criticism for its role in Tibet and Sudan-and the US government is subject to similar criticism for its role in Iraq, Columbia, and elsewhere. But perhaps that makes it a propitious time for those that aspire to be worker representatives to explore interests they have in common.
TC
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