In China, labour activism is waking up
Geoffrey Crothall says the rise in the number of strikes and employee protests across China is one consequence of a changing workforce, and both the official trade union and businesses must adapt
The world's largest retailer Walmart got a nasty shock this year when it tried to close down a small, underperforming store in the central Chinese city of Changde. The company had already shut down several such stores in China without too much incident and was expecting business as usual when, on March 4, it informed the 143 employees of Store No 2024 that they would be out of a job in two weeks' time.
On this occasion, however, the workers decided to take a stand. They blockaded the store and unfurled banners in protest. And at the head of the picket line stood the small but formidable figure of the store's trade union chairman, Huang Xingguo.
Huang is an unlikely hero. Until recently, the official All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) has largely sat on the sidelines of China's growing workers' movement, and union officials have singularly failed to give the workers the support they need. Indeed, the official union's institutional apathy and management-friendly approach was the only reason the notoriously anti-union Walmart agreed to the unionisation of its stores in China in the first place.
So when Huang, a former cashier who was elected head of the Changde store union last year, took the unprecedented step of defying Walmart's closure plan and demanding negotiations with management on severance pay, it not only sent shock waves through Walmart management, it gave the ACFTU officials sitting in their plush air-conditioned offices in Beijing a severe jolt as well.
Trade union officials in other enterprises in China have taken note of what is happening in Changde, Hunan, and they are beginning to realise it is possible to represent their members effectively and not simply acquiesce to management all the time, as the vast majority of them have done in the past. And if more union officials in Chinese enterprises do become more active, the ACFTU in Beijing will have to make an important decision, either to get on board or risk openly defying the workers' movement in China.
The growing activism of China's workers, and now some trade unionists, clearly presents a challenge to the multinationals that have been doing business in the mainland largely unhindered for the past three decades.