Labor non-governmental organizations in China: Mobilizing rural migrant workers

Abstract

In China, rural migrant workers are now the biggest labor force in urban and industrial areas. However, these workers lack effective and legitimate ways to organize themselves to counterbalance the power of capital or negotiate for better rights. Since official trade unions are unable to represent or protect migrant workers, and independent unions are prohibited in China, labor non-governmental organizations emerge as an informal way to mobilize and protect workers. This article explores how labor non-governmental organizations mobilize migrant workers in China, and the dilemmas they face. Labor non-governmental organizations use three strategies to organize workers: legal mobilizing, cultural mobilizing and a campaign intervention approach. However, because they face daily surveillance, repression and co-option by the state, these non-governmental organizations have limited political opportunities to organize workers on a large scale or develop a labor movement. While some struggle to resist these attempts to restrict their activity, other non-governmental organizations become domesticated by the state. Overcoming these limitations will require new tactics by non-governmental organizations to carve an independent space to organize migrant workers.