Abstract
Trade unions in China have long been regarded by Western critics as more of a state apparatus than one that represents labour interests. They have not considered the All-China Federations of Trade Unions (ACFTU) an independent union and it is assumed that there is no genuine freedom of association. Trade union reforms have largely been instigated top–down. And while the ACFTU has been active in labour legislation and unionization, it rarely acts on behalf of workers in their contention with the management at the grass-roots level.
In this fine book, Tim Pringle sets out to rectify this largely negative view regarding the ACFTU, arguing that it does not only engage in top–down strategies (p. 5). Instead, the increasingly sophisticated labour militancy in the past decade provides the primary impetus for pilot initiatives of union work at the local level, which formed an important part of the policy development of trade union reform in China (p. 7). To bring to the fore his central argument, Pringle adopts both historical and empirical approaches in his analysis. He first provides a very substantive account of the historical development of Chinese industrial relations from 1949 to the present day, and the role of the trade unions has been consistently emphasized. He then moves on to discuss labour unrest in both the state and private sectors. Chapter 2 surveys workers’ unrest in the state sector from the early years of the republic up until the restructuring of state enterprises in 2002. In particular during the period of enterprise restructuring and privatization, the role of the trade unions was marginal at best because the unions could do virtually nothing to resist mass redundancies, especially since this was the mandate of the Party leadership. Chapter 3 shifts the focus to collective protests instigated by the large pool of migrant labour. Ironically, labour unrest in the private sector actually allows the ACFTU to rebuild its representative capacity that had been lost in the state sector. Still, the task of the ACFTU is less about representing the interests of workers but more about channelling the unrest into bureaucratic forms of dispute resolution so as to maintain social harmony.
The first three chapters provide the background context for the ensuing discussion of three cases of pilot unionism in Zhejiang, namely, collective consultation resulting in a win-win situation for both workers and employers in Xinhe (Chapter 4), the establishment of a labour rights centre under the local trade union in Yiwu and hence the ‘socialization’ of union work (Chapter 5), and lastly the experiment with ‘direct’ trade union elections (Chapter 6). These examples of innovative unionism speak of a clear break with the ACFTU’s past practices and represent proactive local initiatives in response to the challenge of increasing labour activism. Taken together, the case studies show that ACFTU is not a monolithic entity and its policy development and reform is largely driven by the pressure of worsening labour relations, although its monopoly on union organizing has as yet to be challenged.
In a sense, the drive of trade union reform presented by Pringle corroborates the classic pragmatism seen in earlier reform initiatives in other policy areas in which innovative practices which were tried out and which succeeded at the local level were promoted to become national policy. It is also in line with Deng Xiaoping’s strategy of ‘crossing the river while feeling for the stones’ (p. 187). However, the extent to which these three cases of local innovative unionism have been translated into national practices is not yet evident. Pringle is surely right to point out that the process via which the ACFTU upgrades local pilot projects into national policy needs to be further studied, but the conditions under which such upgrades could be possible are indeed something that Pringle could have tried to discuss.
Anyone interested in trade unions in China would find this book useful. The study is rich in historical narrative about industrial relations and labour unrest, as well as empirical field data on local initiatives of trade unionism. However, I would have liked to see more discussion of the latter since the three chapters of case studies are comparatively short. Moreover, a stronger conclusion could have been attempted. Instead of making vague references to the possibility of an effective global trade union movement, the author could have discussed more substantively the implications of labour activism and the future of trade unionism, in particular the future of ACFTU in China.