Transition And The Plight Of The Trade Union

Since the market transition, labor relations have become increasinglymarket-oriented, complex and diverse. Conflict between employers and workersgradually emerges and increasingly shows its prominent role. Meanwhile, the absenceof trade unions in the mass incidents initiates extensive discussion on the role andposition of trade unions, which in part, causes a crisis of confidence in the union.Takes the social transformation and organizational change as the background, thestudy analyzes the adaptive action and logic of trade union, facing changes of thesocial environment. Through empirical analysis of the operation of nine communitytrade unions in six districts of Shanghai, the study discusses the organizationaltransformation and plight of the union in the process of social changes.As the point of the study, the market-oriented economy reform led the overalltransformation of China’s society. China’s trade unions were forced to begin itsdifficult transition process facing the profound changes of state management systemand labor relations. The transition mainly characterized by the exploration of the roadof reform and innovation, and the attempt to reinforce its legitimacy foundation oftrade union under the pressure of crisis of confidence and maintain social stability. Asthe product of institutional innovation of, the community union is the actor in thetrade union organization. It takes rotation and revolution as its two action strategies.The community trade union maximizes the mobilization of various resources toenhance organizational strength and expands social repercussions, which shows thatthe union does not only adapt social changes passively, but also act actively. Its actionstrategies are not just simply serve its members and mass workers, more importantly,to cater for the needs of the country and strive to build a balance. The study found thatfrom an organizational point of view the operation of the unit case, the communitytrade union presents two basic action modes, namely district-level dominated workpattern and community-level dominated work pattern, which shows in different fieldof community unions, the actor’s freedom and capacity are not the same. In addition, although the community union has limited freedom, the community unions inShanghai currently operational characteristics of the organization does not appear bythe state corporatism signs of turning path of social corporatism, characterized by itsnational law syndicalist organization is still more obvious, which is related to the slowprogress of China’s political system and trade union’s transformation.Overall, although the unions have functions of maintenance, building,participation, education, its action can be classified as two basic logics, themaintenance services and the maintenance of stability, which can also be explained asbe responsible for the workers and the Party. Chinese trade union has special politicalstatus. It fulfills dual agent roles. It’s an agent of masses of workers and members andshould actively take measures to safeguard their legitimate rights and legitimateinterests. At the same time, it’s also involved in social management. Through thepenetration in the social field, implements effective control and thus fulfill the dutiesas the state agent. But obviously, between service and control, control is moreimportant to the leaders of the trade union. Therefore in essence, with the nationalforces quit from the social sphere, as the agent of the state, the trade union activelypenetrate in the marginal areas of society and carry out the corresponding socialmanagement and service work, which is a special way of national management andcontrol. It infiltrates gradually in order to achieve effective control of society. Thestudy shows in the new social and historical conditions, that the trade unionorganization does not only weaken its political attributes but reinforces its function insome area. The trade union plays an important role as alternative governance in socialmanagement because of its special organizational characteristics and the positiveinteraction with the government.The study suggests that there is a special kind of social phenomenon in the processof our country’s development and social transformation, that is the paradoxical state ofdelegation of authority to the community. On the one hand, in the context of socialforced reform, the state passively transfers its social power through decentralization tothe community within a certain range and allows the development of socialself-organization in order to separate from society increasingly. On the other hand, the state is anxious that the self-development in social fields will affect political stabilityand social security, and thus tries to reinforce its power, especially in the neweconomic and social organizations beyond the control of traditional state powerthrough the function of political association as its agent in order to control part of thesociety and achieve the purpose of social integration. Therefore under the overallbackground of depoliticization, there is another form of social management trend inour country. That is, the political associations operate in the marginal areas of society,which leads the state will extends to the entire social body and eliminate the "blindspot" of social management. The marginal penetration political behavior reflects thespecial political process in social management, i.e substitution of political control,which is one of the major findings of this study. The reason is that, to a certain extent,there is still institutional inertia and path-dependent in the process of socialmanagement. The state controls effectively relying on the pivotal function of people’sorganizations, and at the same time avoids losing control of the society and socialautonomy deficiencies.This study suggests that the transformation of Chinese trade unions will be arelatively long process due to the current predicament. Referring to its futuredevelopment direction, the social corporatism is perhaps one of its feasibledestinations. That is, to strengthen the position as social organizations of interestsrepresentative and its operation mode of depoliticization. Finally, the article discussesthe feasibility of regression as social organization of trade unions and suggestions onhow to build a pivot society organizations.