Het blijkt steeds meer dat de stakingen bij Honda en de onrust bij Foxconn slechts de top van de ijsberg zijn. Anita Chan,dé autoriteit betreffende Chinese vakbonden, heeft een commentaar geschreven uitgebracht die in grote lijnen overeenkomt met de analyse van Chinasquare. Deze commentaar, van een buitenlander nog wel, werd bovendien gepubliceerd in het officiële dagblad China Daily.We plaatsende tekst aan het einde van dit artikel, in het Engels
Recentelijk, en al voor de Honda zaak, werd in de Chinese pers melding gemaakt van talrijke acties over heel China. Pas met Honda en Foxconn begonnen de buitenlandse media zich voor de zaak te interesseren. Intussen blijkt de staking sneeuwbal volop verder te rollen. Nu is er ook sprake van het stilleggen van de Toyota assemblageafabriek in Tianjin wegens een staking bij een fabrikant van onderdelen voor de deuren.
De recente succesvolle arbeidersacties hebben zeker te maken met de veranderende economische situatie, en met de grotere assertiviteit van de nieuwe generatie migranten. Doorslaggevend is allicht de regeringspolitiek: een regering die verklaart dat de koopkracht van de burger moet verhogen (om de onzekerheden van een tot nogtoe uitvoergerichte ontwikkeling op te vangen) , en tegelijk stelt dat de kloof tussen arm en rijk te groot geworden is, stuurt zogoed als een uitnodiging aan de werkers om acties te ondernemen.
De acties stellen ook de rol en de organisatie van de Chinese vakbonden (gegroepeerd in de ACFTU) in vraag. De ACFTU is altijd een vakbond van lobbyen geweest: proberen voor de werkers gunstige wetten te doen aannemen en dan samen met de lokale overheden zorgen dat die ook min of meer toegepast worden. Ze hebben geen enkele ervaring in practische strijd op de werkvloer, iets wat in de tijd toen alle bedrijven nog van de staat waren ook hun rol niet was. Het oprichten van bedrijfsafdelingen in de privésector is een moeizaam proces dat nog maar een vijftal jaren geleden echt begonnen is. Binnen de leiding van de ACFTU gaan nu stemmen op om in te spelen op de spontane acties, om die meestal door de patroons gecontroleerde bedrijfsvakbonden in te ruilen voor door de arbeiders verkozen delegees. Bij de Honda staking is hiervoor een eerste belangrijke stap gezet. Op 4 juni heeft de ACFTU een dringende nota verspreid over de noodzaak van het vormen van vakbondsafdelingen in privébedrijven.
Labor unrest and role of unions
By Anita Chan (China Daily 06/18/2010 page9)
June 18, 2010
Workers of several factories in Guangdong province have been drawing
global attention over the past couple of weeks. First, there were
reports of workers jumping to their deaths in a factory of Foxconn,
the world’s largest electronics manufacturer. Around the same time,
some 2,000 workers went on a two-week strike at a Honda component
manufacturing factory, halting production in four Honda assembly
plants. The two were unrelated incidents but the causes were similar –
low pay, long working hours, absence of channels to redress their
grievances, and trade union branches that exist only in name.
The methods chosen by the workers to protest against their plight were
very different – Foxconn workers committed suicide out of desperation,
but despite consequential international publicity their co-workers did
not seize the opportunity to organize themselves in protest. The Honda
workers, on the other hand, were well organized, strategic and
assertive, demanding sizeable wage increases, proposing a pay scale
and a career ladder, electing their own representatives, re-electing
office-bearers to their union branch and demonstrating solidarity and
a determination to win. The passivity of the Foxconn workers is not
new. Migrant workers generally accept their fate, and protests only
flare up when work begins to stretch their physical tolerance to the
limit, or when their legal rights are violated and wages not paid.
In contrast, the Honda workers went on strike to demand higher wages
and better working conditions, something that is unprecedented among
Chinese migrant workers. Their employer apparently had not violated
the law by paying them a wage below the legal minimum level. They were
fighting proactively for their interests rather than for their minimal
legal rights.
The All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) has realized that the
Honda strike is a different form of labor protest, not least because
it goes to the heart of a problem – what is the union’s legitimate
role. Its impact is potentially enormous.
At Foxconn, the union did not even come forward to make a statement.
And at Honda, the union blatantly sided with the local government,
which in turn was on the side of the employer. In both places, the
workplace unions fitted the stereotypical image that migrant workers
have of the official unions – that they are “useless”.
There are a handful of city-level and workplace unions in State
enterprises or large joint ventures that play an intermediary role
between the management and workers. They have softened some of the
harsher edges of management practices. They are even able to
informally negotiate better wages for workers, which are then
formalized by so-called “collective consultation agreements”.
In contrast, in foreign enterprises in Guangdong’s Pearl River Delta
region, union representatives (where they exist, that is) are assigned
by the local governments, whose paramount interest is to attract
foreign investment. These governments, historically, are former
production brigades or communes or townships, which now rent out land
to companies and appoint a few local union-ignorant people to run the
trade union offices. Even some higher-level union officials dismiss
them as “fake unions”.
The ACFTU has a herculean task ahead if it wants to fulfill its
assigned role of representing workers or, if it falls short of this
mission, to at least be able to maintain social stability. To do away
with the “fake unions”, the local trade union offices should be put
under the jurisdiction of the upper-level union instead of local
governments. The ACFTU should allow workers to elect their
representatives to their workplace union committees, too, as has
happened in a very modest number of firms. Only then can the union
branches demonstrably represent workers’ interests rather that the
employers’ or governments’.
Foreign investors will not easily give up the low-wage,
longer-than-normal-working-hours policy they have been practising in
China. The ACFTU has had in place for many years a policy of urging
workplace unions to sign collective contracts with the managements.
But the unions in China do not have much experience in dealing with
capital and management. This shortcoming was recognized by an
editorial in the People’s Daily on June 9.
Therefore, the ACFTU would do well to open up and exchange experiences
with unions in other countries. Though this trend has already begun,
the process has to be expedited if Chinese unions are to learn how to
conduct collective bargaining effectively. To ensure success, the
ACFTU will have to join hands with global unions as capital plays off
countries against each other.
Fortunately, China’s labor laws are favorable to workers. Moreover,
the workers are willing to become members of the ACFTU – the Honda
workers who went on strike now want to hold a new election to their
union branch committee.
This demand should not be confused with workers seeking an alternative
union, a point that is often misunderstood by foreign observers. The
right to have a democratic re-election is within the purview of
China’s Trade Union Law. The ACFTU will win the trust of Chinese
workers by supporting such elections, which would help place labor
relations on a legitimate, constructive footing. A union committee
recognized by workers as their own is a pre-condition to successful
collective bargaining.
The author is a research professor at the China Research Centre,
University of Technology, Sydney.
(China Daily 06/18/2010 page9)
