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Record Nr.

UNINA9910154633603321

Autore

Estlund Cynthia

Titolo

A new deal for China's workers? / / Cynthia Estlund

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge, MA : , : Harvard University Press, , [2018]

©2017

ISBN

0-674-97332-1

0-674-97329-1

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (302 pages) : illustrations

Disciplina

331.0951

Soggetti

Industrial relations - China

Labor policy - China

Labor unions - China

Comparative industrial relations

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- 1. Introduction -- 2. The Rise of China, and of Labor Protest, in the Reform Era -- 3. Who Speaks for China's Workers? The ACFTU and Labor NGOs -- 4. How Did the New Deal Resolve the American "Labor Question"? Bringing a Comparative Lens into Focus -- 5. Can China Regulate Its Way out of Labor Unrest? Rising Labor Standards and the Enforcement Gap -- 6. Can China Secure Labor Peace without Independent Unions? Strikes and Collective Bargaining with Chinese Characteristics -- 7. What Does Democracy Look Like in China? Reforming Grassroots Union Elections -- 8. Will Workers Have a Voice in the "Socialist Market Economy"? The Curious Revival of the Worker Congress System -- 9. Conclusion -- Notes -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

China's labor landscape is changing, and it is transforming the global economy in ways that we cannot afford to ignore. Once-silent workers have found their voice, organizing momentous protests, such as the 2010 Honda strikes, and demanding a better deal. China's leaders have responded not only with repression but with reforms. Are China's workers on the verge of a breakthrough in industrial relations and labor law reminiscent of the American New Deal? In A New Deal for China's



Workers? Cynthia Estlund views this changing landscape through the comparative lens of America's twentieth-century experience with industrial unrest. China's leaders hope to replicate the widely shared prosperity, political legitimacy, and stability that flowed from America's New Deal, but they are irrevocably opposed to the independent trade unions and mass mobilization that were central to bringing it about. Estlund argues that the specter of an independent labor movement, seen as an existential threat to China's one-party regime, is both driving and constraining every facet of its response to restless workers. China's leaders draw on an increasingly sophisticated toolkit in their effort to contain worker activism. The result is a surprising mix of repression and concession, confrontation and cooptation, flaws and functionality, rigidity and pragmatism. If China's laborers achieve a New Deal, it will be a New Deal with Chinese characteristics, very unlike what workers in the West achieved in the last century. Estlund's sharp observations and crisp comparative analysis make China's labor unrest and reform legible to Western readers.