Posts tagged ‘All-China Federation of Trade Unions’

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04/08/2016

Poland in talks with Chinese buyers over LOT airline stake | Reuters

Poland is in talks with potential investors from China over selling a stake in the state airline LOT [LOT.UL], Deputy Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday.

Poland’s euroskeptic, conservative government has been looking to tighten its relations with China since coming to power last year. The two countries pledged deeper co-operation during the visit of China’s leader Xi Jinping to Warsaw in June.”LOT is our national carrier, which we are trying to save no matter the cost. It is deeply in debt,” Morawiecki told state news agency PAP on Wednesday, adding that without a national carrier Poland would become a more peripheral country.

LOT, one of the world’s oldest airlines, has for years struggled to compete against low-cost competitors like Ryanair (RYA.I) and bigger rivals. The state-owned airline was saved from bankruptcy in 2012 thanks to public aid of more than 500 million zlotys ($130 million).

“The previous government has already granted public support for LOT, we cannot grant another and we are looking for an investor,” Morawiecki said.

“According to EU law a carrier from outside the EU cannot take over more than 49 percent of a carrier from the EU, hence we are in talks with potential investors, among others, from China,” he said.Morawiecki also said that usually it is a very long road to finalize such a transaction.

Earlier on Wednesday, a Polish local newspaper reported that Chinese carrier Air China (601111.SS) is interested in buying a 49-percent stake in LOT with a delegation from the Chinese firm expected to arrive in Warsaw over the coming days.

However, a LOT spokesman said he had no knowledge of any plans for a capital tie-up between LOT and Air China.

“I have no knowledge regarding any planned capital co-operation between LOT and Air China,” Adrian Kubicki, LOT spokesman said. “We have commercial co-operation with Air China, which we want to develop, regarding the Warsaw-Beijing route.”

Air China was not immediately available for comment.

Source: Poland in talks with Chinese buyers over LOT airline stake | Reuters

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13/03/2015

Bargaining With Chinese Characteristics: Labor Group Defends Practices – China Real Time Report – WSJ

When Chinese Premier Li Keqiang omitted a reference to collective bargaining in an annual policy speech last week, labor scholars worried that Beijing may be backing away from a much-needed policy tool for dealing with rising industrial unrest.

China’s state-controlled trade unions are seeking to allay such concerns. They are pledging to keep promoting collective bargaining in a way that calms labor tensions without derailing growth in the country’s already-slowing economy.

“Collective wage bargaining is something we will continue to promote,” said Li Shouzhen, a senior official at the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, or ACFTU. “It is a tried-and-tested process that’s practiced by successful enterprises.”

via Bargaining With Chinese Characteristics: Labor Group Defends Practices – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

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26/02/2015

A Shot at Solving China’s Angry Worker Problem – China Real Time Report – WSJ

Labor unrest is on the rise in China and likely to increase as the leadership grapples with a dangerous combination of an economic slowdown and the lack of effective institutions to cope with worker unrest.

A new set of regulations put forward by one province offers a potential solution while at the same time illustrating the difficulty the Communist Party faces in effectively addressing workers’ grievances.

Regulations for “collective contracts” adopted by the Standing Committee of the People’s Congress in southern China’s Guangdong Province took effect on January 1, 2015, giving employees more leeway to initiate collective bargaining with their employers.  Observers in the government, chambers of commerce, the state-backed All-China Federation of Trade Unions and workers’ rights organizations will be watching to see whether the new rules represent a meaningful step forward in advancing labor rights.

The need for rules that would allow China’s workers to negotiate better conditions is great.  Labor disputes are the most prevalent form of social conflict in the country, according to the Chinese Academy of Social Science’s annual report on social trends. Labor incidents during the fourth quarter of 2014 rose to 569, more than three times the number in the previous year, according to the China Labor Bulletin (CLB), which finds that 87% of  workers’ demands are for “wage arrears, pay increases and compensation.”

In 2014, workers went on strike around the country in a range of industries, from manufacturing to teaching to transportation.

The causes of the unrest varied accordingly: In April, for example, the majority of workers at a Taiwanese-owned factory in Guangdong that makes products for Adidas struck to protest the company’s failure to pay its 40,000 workers their full social security and housing allowances. The strike, which cost an estimated $27 million in loses to the factory, drew large numbers of police into the streets. Workers later accused local officials and company executive of using force to get them to return to work, though the government denied any force was used.

In December, thousands of teachers went on strike in six cities or counties in Heilongjiang to protest low salaries and the required contributions to pension plans; in Guangdong, teachers’ strikes protested low monthly salaries that were below what the government had promised.

And earlier this year, taxi drivers walked out in the cities of Nanjing, Chengdu, Shenyang, and Qingdao to protest local government limitations on taxi fares and smartphone apps that allow passengers to negotiate fares.

As the CLB notes, the majority of enterprise trade unions are controlled by and represent the interests of management. ACFTU officials, meanwhile, are “essentially government bureaucrats with little understanding of the needs of workers or how to represent them in negotiations with management.” The state-sanctioned trade union, CLB adds, “still sees itself as bridge or mediator between workers and management rather than as a voice of the workers.”

In recent years, the government emphasized mediation as a way to solve labor disputes and protect social stability, followed by what University of Michigan expert Mary Gallagher has called a “more interventionist stance” that involved government officials helping to settle disputes typically in favor of workers.  All the while, Gallagher writes, collective organizations outside the ACFTU have been restricted to prevent any workers’ collective action from growing into “anything long-term, programmatic, or institutional.”

via A Shot at Solving China’s Angry Worker Problem – China Real Time Report – WSJ.

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19/10/2014

China’s Workers Are Getting Restless – Businessweek

China does not have large independent labor unions, yet the world’s second-largest economy has witnessed an increasing number of worker strikes over the past year.

Police guard outside the Yue Yuan shoe factory after workers returned to work in Dongguan, China on April 28 following a two-week strike

According to an Oct. 14 report from the Hong Kong-based watchdog group China Labour Bulletin (CLB), the number of strikes and worker protests in the third quarter of 2014 was double the number of labor actions recorded in the same period last year: From July to September this year, the watchdog group recorded 372 strikes and worker protests across China, compared with 185 incidents over those months last year.

What’s more, the habit of organizing collective action—often through social media—is spreading beyond China’s traditional manufacturing hub of southern Guangdong province. While the number of strikes in Guangdong province has remained roughly the same, unrest has intensified in inland China. In 2013, Guangdong accounted for 35 percent of recorded labor actions vs. 19 percent this year.

Half of all recorded worker strikes and protests arose from disputes over late or unpaid wages—perhaps symptoms of economic troubles hitting manufacturers as well as tightening credit in China, according to CLB.

Also notable is the uptick in strikes led by construction workers, from just four demonstrations last summer to 55 this summer. Amid a slumping housing market, new home prices in August tumbled in 68 of 70 Chinese cities monitored by the government. As the CLB report explains, “Developers are saddled with declining sales, weaker credit availability, and continued pressure from local governments to buy land. In these situations, it is the construction workers who are always the last to be paid.”

China’s only official union is the government-linked All China Federation of Trade Unions, which lacks credibility with most workers. To date, it has only ever formally leant support to one worker strike, according to records reviewed by the liberal American Prospect magazine. Yet Chinese workers are increasingly organizing within their individual workplaces to press for higher wages, timely payments, and social security benefits. So far, these individual strikes have not coalesced into a broader, coordinated movement, which almost certainly would incur a speedy government crackdown.

via China’s Workers Are Getting Restless – Businessweek.

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11/05/2014

Fired from Walmart, Mrs Wang is now gunning for China’s state labor union | Reuters

When Wang Yafang was fired from her job at a Walmart in southern China in July 2011 for dishonesty, she refused to sign the termination papers and even showed up at work the next day – only to be sent away.

Wang, 38, then sued Walmart Shen Guo Tou Stores Inc, a Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) subsidiary, for wrongful termination, and beat the world’s largest retailer in arbitration and twice in court, winning 48,636 yuan ($7,800) in damages.

Now, she’s aiming at an even bigger target: the state-backed All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU).

All-China Federation of Trade Unions

All-China Federation of Trade Unions (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

In the three decades since China began reforming its economy, its giant state labor union – with upwards of 280 million members – has sat on the sidelines, rarely intervening on behalf of workers in disputes.

In a bid to help change that, Wang, backed by lawyers who have handled some of China’s highest-profile labor cases, decided to sue the union branch at the Walmart in Shenzhen where she worked for nine years. Unlike the few previous attempts by workers to sue grassroots union branches, courts have heard Wang’s case.

Wang and her team argue that the union endorsed the assessment of her as “dishonest” when she was fired and in doing so damaged her reputation. She wants an apology. The union branch has denied the charges.

Beneath the surface, Wang and her lawyers are leveling a more serious accusation – one echoed by many Chinese workers – that the ACFTU is failing in its role as the protector of worker rights and interests.

The landmark case highlights shifting labor relations in China, where workers increasingly know their rights and are seizing opportunities to challenge the status quo, often in court. Independent unions are banned in China, and the ACFTU is coming under unprecedented pressure to adapt.

Two courts in Shenzhen have already heard Wang’s case since she filed the suit last July, and have ruled against her. This month or next, her lawyers plan to launch a final appeal with the Guangdong superior people’s court.

“Either way, if she wins or loses, it is already extremely meaningful that this case has been brought to trial,” said Shi Zhigang, a former union boss from Nanjing who now acts as a collective bargaining adviser to local union branches.

“It’s an amazing development that the courts have even accepted the case and are using Chinese law to make an assessment and evaluation of the union.”

via Fired from Walmart, Mrs Wang is now gunning for China’s state labor union | Reuters.

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01/06/2013

China’s Lopsided Labor Force

BusinessWeek: “While a dwindling number of migrant laborers is helping drive up salaries in China’s assembly-line industries and other low-skilled employment categories, a surplus of college graduates for available white-collar jobs is eroding the bargaining power of those with university degrees.

Students preparing for the college entrance exam in China's Sichuan province

Wages have been steadily rising for China’s 260 million migrant workers—who take jobs in factories, on construction sites, in restaurants, and in other sectors with minimal entry requirements. According to the government-led All-China Federation of Trade Unions, the average monthly earnings of migrant workers across China rose 11 percent from 2011 to 2012, to 2,290 renminbi ($370). That exceeds the rate of China’s GDP growth.

Meanwhile, as central-government investment has allowed China to increase university enrollment and graduation rates massively, the demand for college graduates has not kept up. The number of university degrees awarded annually has risen fourfold in a decade, to about 8 million today.

Among those new graduates who did find employment last year, 69 percent had starting salaries that paid less than 2,000 renminbi per month—in other words, their jobs paid them less than they might have earned as migrant laborers, according to figures reported by a the 21st Century Business Herald newspaper on Tuesday.

Those grim numbers won’t, however, dent the hopes of millions of high-school seniors who will be taking China’s three-day college entrance exam the first week in June. The exam, called gaokao, is widely criticized for stressing rote-memorization skills over critical thinking. Critics have called for reforming the test for years, but for now, it’s still a key hurdle—the first of many—for students aspiring to steady jobs and a middle-class life.”

via China’s Lopsided Labor Force – Businessweek.

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Posted in China alert, Economics, graduate, higher education, labour shortage, Migrant workers, Politics, temporary workers | 1 Comment »

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