Labor is Not a Commodity

Chinese worker's poem captures factory life

Cindy Shuck, Intern, International Labor Rights Forum

The Factory Girl

From the damp, dirty hallway,

From the long lines of the cafeteria,

From the rumble of the machines and the unbearable factory noise,

The daylight drifts by, the starlight drifts by.

Forever crying on the production line,

The factory girls endure exhaustion and hardship.

How to talk about China

Trina Tocco, International Labor Rights Forum

On Monday night, Anita Chan (China Labor News Translations) and Jeff Fiedler (FAST-Research Associates of America) gave a terrific analysis of labor rights in China today as well as specific information about the way in which workers took part in forming a union at Wal-Mart retail stores in China more than two years ago.  As you probably know, forming a union in China is very different than what happens in the US since there is only one union in China and it is controlled by the government.

You can learn more about the ACFTU (All China Federation of Trade Unions) and China labor law by checking out one of Manfred's recent blogs here. 

You can also learn about the recent efforts to organize Wal-Mart workers by checking out a recent blog written by Paul Garver here.

What I thought was most interesting about the discussion were the difficulties the audience had with determining what they could actually do to support strong labor standards and their working brother and sisters across China. 

Let's Go Reverse Trick-Or-Treating!

Tim Newman, Campaigns Assistant, International Labor Rights Forum

This Halloween, kids will be giving treats to adults in a national campaign called Reverse Trick-or-Treating. 

The International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) is joining a number of our allies in supporting this fun action which is now in its second year.  This Halloween, hundreds of groups of Trick-or-Treaters in the U.S. and Canada will reverse the Halloween tradition and hand out samples of Fair Trade chocolate and information about child labor and poverty in the cocoa industry to the houses they visit.

The deadlines to register are approaching quickly, so click here to get more information and to register and keep reading, too. 

Implementing Guidelines for China's Labor Contract Law Released

By Manfred Elfstrom, ILRF Program Officer

China has just released its long-awaited implementing guidelines (in Chinese here) for the Labor Contract Law (LCL). 

The guidelines clarify a few rough areas.  For example, in Article 6, they nail down how exactly to calculate the compensation due a worker who has illegally not been given a formal contract: double pay for each month of labor put in after the first month of employment and up until a contract is signed (employers have to sign contracts within the first month, according to the LCL). 

New Regulations Against Child Labor in Dongguan, China

Manfred Elfstrom, Program Officer, International Labor Rights Forum

In May I wrote about a Southern Metropolis Daily exposé of child trafficking in Dongguan City and the resulting government investigation. Less than two months after these events, at the end of June, Dongguan adopted stringent new guidelines directed at employers who use children. And on July 1, the city embarked on an inspection drive that will wrap up on August 31.

According to a Guangdong government website, anyone who arranges for children under 16 years of age to be employed (such as a labor dispatch agency) now faces a fine of 5,000 RMB. This is not a particularly heavy fine, but companies that themselves employ children are fined 5,000 RMB per child, per month—and must pay for all expenses associated with returning child laborers to their parents.

New Guidelines for Shanghai Staff and Workers Representative Congresses

By Manfred Elfstrom, ILRF Program Officer

According to an article in Workers Daily, Shanghai is introducing a new “Guiding Opinion” to increase the power of “Staff and Workers’ Representative Congresses” (or simply “workers congresses”) in the city.

“Workers’ congresses” are similar to Western European “works councils” and, at least in principle, ensure representatives of ordinary workers a voice in enterprise decision-making. Precursors of today’s congresses were created as far back as 1949 and the system was revived during the early reform era (drawing on the example of socialist Yugoslavia—see Anita Chan and Zhu Xiaoyang’s 2005 article in Chinese Sociology and Anthropology).

Wal-Mart Signs First Collective Contract in China: What Does it Mean?

By Manfred Elfstrom, ILRF Program Officer

Wal-Mart has finally signed a collective contract with its employees—not in the United States, but in Northeast China. 

According to Xinhua Net (in English here and, in somewhat more detail, in Chinese here), the retail giant’s outlet in Shenyang City agreed “to raise employees’ salary by an annual rate of 8 percent in 2008 and 2009.”  This news highlights recent trends in Chinese labor relations. 

Most immediately, the contract is a victory for an ongoing Wal-Mart organizing effort that has seen the All China Federation of Trade Unions  adopt daring, grassroots techniques.  China Labor News Translations has done an excellent job of documenting this campaign, its successes and challenges. 

With the passage of the Labor Contract Law last December, collective contracts have received new attention across the country.  Shenzhen City in China’s Southeast has taken the lead with its “Draft Regulations on the Growth and Development of Harmonious Labor Relations in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone”. 

Chinese Workers in Their Own Words

Manfred Elfstrom, ILRF

The movement of Chinese from the country’s rural interior to its hyper-industrial coast has been one of the biggest mass migrations in human history. The exact number of migrants is hard to determine, but it generally is thought to hover over 200 million people. There has been no shortage of reporting on the phenomenon, whether in the Mainland Chinese or foreign press.  But the migrants’ own voices can often be lost in the clamor. 

The magazine Rural Women (nong jia nü) (formerly Rural Women Knowing All), was established under the aegis of the All China Women’s Federation.  It is now really a multi-purpose organization, including the magazine, a Migrant Women’s Club, Cultural Development Center for Rural Women, and Practical Skills Training Center for Rural Women. 

Even with all these activities, the magazine itself appears to still be at the center of the organization’s mission.  Rural Women, as its name implies, carries the stories of the women—“working sisters” or dagong mei—from small villages who keep the economies of Guangdong, Fujian and other provinces humming.  The magazine’s Chinese- and English language websites can be found, respectively, here  and here.

China's New Arbitration Law

By Manfred Elfstrom, ILRF

At around the time of the child trafficking investigations in Dongguan City that I reported on in my last post, China began implementing its new “Labor Dispute Mediation and Arbitration Law” (LDMAL or simply “The Arbitration Law”). The legislation, which went into effect on May 1, has attracted little attention abroad, aside from a good piece at the Global Labor Strategies blog in October 2007. Nonetheless, LDMAL is a significant, if incomplete, step forward.

The Arbitration Law was bound to pale in comparison with the drama that accompanied the recent drafting, passage and implementation of the “Employment Contracts Law” (ECL, also called the “Labor Contract Law”): debates between foreign businesses and labor groups, an unprecedented outpouring of public comment—over 190,000 responses in only a month—criticisms by entrepreneur-delegates to the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee, and continued scandals involving companies trying to shirk their new responsibilities to workers (see here, here, here, here and here).

Another World is Possible!

In response to the call for a global week of action during the week of January 21-26, 2008 initiated by the World Social Forum, the Labor is Not a Commodity blog will feature articles throughout the week related to the theme: "Another World is Possible: International Labor Solidarity Success Stories."

We will be sharing stories about when people around the world came together to support workers' rights and how different individuals and organizations are successfully protecting labor rights globally.  Keep checking throughout the week for inspiring updates.

We also want to hear your stories!  You can contribute blog entries about successful labor campaigns by sending your stories to Tim at tim.newman[at]ilrf.org -- the sooner the better!

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