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China's Trade Unions - How Autonomous Are They?: A Survey of 1811 Enterprise Union Chairpersons
Contributor(s): Hishida, Masaharu (Author), Kojima, Kazuko (Author), Ishii, Tomoaki (Author)
ISBN: 0415490162     ISBN-13: 9780415490160
Publisher: Routledge
OUR PRICE:   $52.20  
Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats
Published: December 2009
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Temporarily out of stock - Will ship within 2 to 5 weeks
Annotation:

This book examines the status of trade unions in contemporary China, exploring the degree to which trade unions have been reformed as China is increasingly integrated into the global economy, and discussing the key question of how autonomous China's trade unions are.

Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Business & Economics
- Political Science
- Social Science | Ethnic Studies - General
Dewey: 331.880
LCCN: 2009027616
Series: China Policy
Physical Information: 288 pages
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:

This book examines the status of trade unions in contemporary China, exploring the degree to which trade unions have been reformed as China is increasingly integrated into the global economy, and discussing the key question of how autonomous China's trade unions are. Based on an extensive, grass-roots survey of local trade union chairpersons, the book reveals that although trade unions in foreign owned firms and in firms dealing with foreign firms are beginning to resemble trade unions in the West, in the majority of firms a state corporatist model of trade unions continues, with chairmen appointed by the party, with many of them occupying simultaneously party and trade union positions, and thinking it right to do so, and having power bases and networks in both the party and the trade union, with initiatives for protecting workers' interests coming from the top down, rather than the bottom up, and with collective negotiation and democratic participation in union affairs continuing to be a mere formality. The book shows how the state - wishing to maintain political stability - continues to regard itself, legitimated by the concepts of socialism and proletarian dictatorship, as the sole arbiter of and protector of workers' rights, with no place for workers protecting their own interests themselves in the harsh environment of the new market economy. The book concludes, however, that because the different model of industrial relations which prevails in foreign owned firms is formally part of the government system, there is the possibility that this new more Western model will in time spread more widely.