Labour under threat: The rise and (possible) fall of ‘collective bargaining in South China

Abstract

INTERNATIONAL union rights Page 3 Volume 22 Issue 4 2015 FOCUS ❐ LABOUR SITUATION IN CHINA Labour under threat: The rise and (possible) fall of ‘collective bargaining’ in South China After at least three years of delay, the Guangdong Regulation on Collective Consultation and Collective Contract came into force in 1 January 2015 in this phenomenon has been on-going labour militancy and its role as a driver of state policy. Consequently, state policy has not been static in recent years. After at least three years of delay, the Guangdong Regulation on Collective Consultation and Collective Contract came into force in 1 January 2015. The ILO described the new regulation as heralding a ‘good year for business in Guangdong’ and argued that the new regulations provided a framework for collective bargaining. After years of lobbying aimed at reducing the impact of the regulations on Hong Kong business interests in Guangdong, The Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce congratulated itself on getting all references to sector- and industry-level bargaining removed from the Regulations and raising the trigger threshold for demands for collective bargaining from a third to a half of all workers in an enterprise. The ACFTU has also been under pressure to react to labour unrest. Following the watershed 2010 strike by auto-parts workers employed in a Honda factory in Foshan, provincial and city levels of the organisation in Guangdong announced a willingness to experiment with various reforms with the potential to facilitate limited forms of collective bargaining. The two most important were pilots in the election of enterprise trade union committees that are largely appointed by management or higher trade unions; and the cautious emergence of annual collective bargaining in key industries, notably the auto industry and to a lesser extent at port terminals. Results to date have been mixed. In October 2013, university student researchers working undercover in factories wrote an open letter to the Shenzhen Federation of Trade Unions (SFTU) claiming that only two out the five factories they had worked in had effective elected union branches. Annual collective bargaining in Guangdong’s auto sector has been more interesting . Former chairman of the Guangzhou Federation of Trade Unions Chen Weiguang reported that the median negotiated pay rise in six Guangzhou-based wholly-owned auto parts factories was 15 percent for the period 2011-2012 and an average wage of RMB 3256 for frontline shop floor workers – excluding deputy supervisors and above – in 2013. In larger, more capital-intensive joint venture auto assembly plants, the median wage increase over the same period was 19 percent – but with higher differentials – and an average wage of RMB 5834. However, something of a stalemate has emerged over the last two years as state policy has swung back towards prioritising stability in the face of a generalised economic slowdown. On the one hand, the more repressive organs of the state have launched campaigns of intimidation and arrests against civil society actors such as the O n 3 December 2015, police began raiding the homes and offices of labour rights activists across the city of Guangzhou and the Pearl River Delta in China’s southernmost province of Guangdong. At least 21 people were taken in for questioning. Six have since been charged with gathering crowds to disrupt public order and one with embezzlement. They are facing prison sentences. Worse, there are rumours of the accusations being ‘upgraded’ to the much more serious charge of ‘threatening state security’. It carries a sentence of up to fifteen years in prison. In response, trade unionists, labour organisations , activists and academics have written articles and signed petitions calling for the release of the detainees. National union federations, Global Union Federations and the ITUC have contacted the party-led All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) expressing concern and calling for the organisation to intervene on behalf of the labour activists. Given the absence of transparency in China’s judiciary, the denial of regular access to lawyers and general climate of fear that this and previous crackdowns on lawyers and human rights defenders has created, on-going international solidarity is going to be a key resource for both detained activists and operational labour NGOs (LNGOs) in coming...