Responding to Industrial Unrest in China: Prospects for Strengthening the Role of Collective Bargaining

Abstract

With the dramatic upsurge in labour unrest in China, there has been renewed official interest in promoting collective contracts as a mechanism for negotiation of workers’ interest based claims and as a way of resolving interest based disputes. While negotiation of collective contracts has long been promoted by China’s official union organisation, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, entering into collective contracts at the enterprise level has, to date, been primarily an administrative task to fulfil quotas rather than a vehicle for bargaining over interests. What are the prospects that there is now sufficient political will to transform collective contracting into a more effective mec..