China's Labor Union (ACFTU)

Comment over at Beijing Newspeak led me to an article entitled, "China and the International Labour Movement." which in turn led me to this more recent, equally interesting article entitled, "Organzing Wal Mart in China: Two Steps Forward, One Step Back for China's Unions." [pdf] Both arrticles are by Anita Chan, who is with the Contemporary China Centre of the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies at The Australian National University. Ms. Chan has written extensively on China labor issues.

Her take on China's union can probably be summed up as follows:

The common image of the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) is that it is useless - that it is powerless, a so-called "transmission belt", an arm of an authoritarian party-state, that because it is not independent it cannot protect workers' rights; the list goes on. Even those within the ACFTU lament the unions' own problems, low status and ineffectual role. It is seen as so useless that almost no scholars inside or outside China care to do research on it. I, too, had my doubts as to whether I should spend my time studying it. While conducting research on Chinese workers, though, I gradually began to see that the ACFTU is not so useless. It has a function assigned by the state to protect workers' rights. It is an elephant made up of many parts. Its effectiveness in protecting workers' rights varies from level to level, region to region, and in many cases comes down to the individual union officials.

What strikes me about Ms. Chan's views on China's labor unions is how closely they mirror my view of China's courts.

Those interested in the role of unions in China should definitely check out Ms. Chan's works. China's new labor law appears to have greatly strengthened the ACFTU and I am looking forward to reading Ms. Chan's take on that.