Well, I’m only half serious. But, there is something interesting to watch when it comes to China and its labor movement. And a lesson to learn when a government says "you have to have unions".
China is wracked with labor strife literally every day, though we almost never read about it: work stoppages, wildcat strikes and protests about cronyism and poor treatment of workers. Whatever way you want to characterize the nature of the Chinese regime, it’s clear that one of its main goals is to make China hospitable for global capitalism. The problem is that some people are getting very rich in China, while hundreds of millions have been subjected to some pretty awful conditions–including wage rates imposed by the government (so much for the "free market").
But, as China grows like crazy, the government is trying to figure out how to manage that growth without a 21st Century revolt, with deep social fissures tearing apart the country. One way, figures the regime, is to force companies to accept unions, as The New York Times reports today:
Some of the world’s biggest corporations are facing intense pressure from China to allow the state-approved union to form in their Chinese plants and offices. But many companies fear admitting the unions will give their Chinese employees the power to slow or disrupt their operations and will significantly increase the cost of doing business here.
The companies, many of which moved to China to lower manufacturing costs and some to avoid unions in their home countries as well, are now being asked to meet a Sept. 30 deadline to make their offices and factories union shops.
Companies that do not comply risk being publicly vilified or blacklisted by the union, and perhaps penalized by the government, since businesses are required by law to allow unions to form.
Global corporations have done as much as possible to block new labor laws in China, as I discussed almost two years ago. But, over time, many of these corporations have begun to get the message: if you want to do business here, you have to have a union. Even the Beast of Bentonville–Wal-Mart–signed up, even though it will kick the crap out of any workers trying to unionize its U.S. stores.
Understand, that there is only one sanctioned union in China–the All China Federation of Trade Unions. It doesn’t seem, at first glance, to have the attributes of an independent union in the way we think of one. One way of viewing the ACFTU is simply as an arm of an authoritarian state party. Whether to engage the ACFTU or not has been a hot topic within the U.S. labor movement for a number of years–the AFL-CIO has had a policy of shunning the ACFTU but that has softened a bit of late; Change To Win has actively engaged the ACFTU, most recently earlier this year when a large delegation of Change To Win leaders traveled to China for official meetings with the ACFTU.
The ACFTU is, in fact, a bit complicated. The ACFTU is a massive organization in a huge country. Sure, some of the top officials may just be state party operatives. But, at the regional and local levels, down to the factory level of a particular global corporations, you can find a lot of union activists who are pushing for better working conditions.
And that’s what makes these global corporations nervous:
Forming unions could be costly, lawyers and labor experts say, because a union could fight for higher wages and benefits and because companies are required to pay 2 percent payroll dues. The dues could amount to millions of dollars in additional costs for big companies. Yum Brands, for instance, has about 160,000 employees in China.
Manufacturers are already coping with soaring labor costs, which have jumped by 30 to 40 percent in some coastal manufacturing zones over the last four years. Also, a new contract labor law and stricter enforcement of older labor rules means some companies can no longer avoid paying overtime costs, which can be substantial because many factories insist that some employees work six days a week.
Oh, pity the poor corporation that actually has to pay overtime when someone works six days a week…
But, there is an irony here. Even with the limitations inherent in the Chinese legal and political system, it’s amazing to watch how quickly companies will move to deal with unions when the government says it must.
Wouldn’t it be nice if that would happen in the United States of America? The Employee Free Choice Act will be one step. But, we still have an environment in this country where its rare for public leaders to stand up and say to companies, "unionize now or be seen as an outcast".
Update: this is what "Union Yes" in chinese looks like: 社团是
