Social Justice on the Shop Floor: Trade Union Reform in Russia, China and Vietnam

Abstract

The state-sponsored trade unions in China and Vietnam and the traditional trade union in Russia share a common inheritance. Namely, their primary function during the pre-reform era was directive rather than representative. From the perspective of upholding workers’ rights and interests, this tradition does not sit well in the post-reform environment of capitalist employment relations. The custom and practice of the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL), the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) and the Federation of Independent Trade Unions of Russia (FNPR) — that emerged from the state-sponsored All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions — are entirely different from trade unions in countries with much longer capitalist histories. They developed as an arm of the Party apparatus via revolutionary struggle that included organised resistance to colonialism and imperialism. Following the victories of their respective communist parties, the unions adopted, with varying degrees of internal dissent and upheaval, the function of representing the interests of the working class as a whole, as defined by the Communist Party, rather than the sectional interests of groups of workers. Although this did not exclude representing members in disciplinary hearings and in grievances related to wage calculation or health and safety issues, it was invariably on an individual basis founded on the theoretical integration of the interests of managers and the managed.KeywordsTrade UnionCollective BargainingShop FloorCollective AgreementSocialist Market EconomyThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.