Analysis Of Declining Reason For American Labor Unions And Its Enlightenment To China

Constructing harmonious labor relations, promoting the healthy development of social economy and maintaining social stability are the realistic problems that our country faces at present. The Eighteenth National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed that the labor standards system and labor relations coordination mechanism should be improved; the labor security and dispute mediation arbitration system should be strengthened.Collective bargaining or collective negotiation is a feasible way to achieve the benefit sharing mechanism between enterprises and employees. Trade unions in the western developed countries have a history of more than 200 years. Collective negotiation has played an important role in the resolution of labor relations. The United States trade union organization, which began in eighteenth Century, developed to its peak in twentieth Century. It has greatly increased the wages and welfare of workers, improved the working conditions of workers, and reduced the inequality of income on the whole. The United States trade unions has began to show a decline since1955 influenced by many factors, but it is still playing an important role in the economic operation, political life and the country’s foreign relations.China Trade Union is the largest mass organization and the number of the members is still growing. But its independence is relatively weak because it must comply with the Party and national work overall situation, taking into account the interests of the government, enterprises and workers. Therefore, its functions are not fully played, and it is difficult to maintain the interests of workers. It is significant to strengthen the construction of trade unions, build a harmonious labor relationship, and maintain social stability in our country by analyzing the causes of the decline of American trade unions while learning some useful experience. This paper analyzes the causes of the decline of American trade unions, expounds the historical role and current situation of the trade unions in China, and makes a comparison between the trade unions in China and America. In the end, some suggestions are put forward on the basis of the current situation in China.The paper is divided into three parts:The first part is the background. In this part, the historical process of the emergence, development and decline of trade unions in the United States are systematically expounded. American trade unions emerged in late eighteenth Century. At that time, the union was organized by workers themselves without presence of any employers. Collective bargaining and strikes are the main forms of struggle. Trade unionism led the labor movement during that period. In 1930s, the United States Congress passed the national labor relations act which is a milestone in the history of the United States labor legislation. The bill entitled workers to join the trade union and the workers’ collective negotiation, which led to the fast development of trade union. In 1955, the two main labor unions, the AFL and CIO merged, whose members accounted for about a third of the total number of employees in the United States at that time. Then the trade unions in the United States reached heyday. In twenty years after that, the United States trade unions were basically in a steady state. Sincel980 the American labor movement has been at a low ebb with the decrease of the number of its members.The second part is the starting point of the paper which focuses on the causes of the decline of the United States trade unions. The author believes that the causes of the decline of American trade unions are the following:first, the influence of the United States labor unions to the workers’wages and benefits decreased; secondly, the unemployment rate increased; thirdly, internal economic structure of the United States changed; fourthly, the function of the trade unions strikes decreased; fifthly, the counter system of the capital side, sixthly,trade unions have their own problems; seventhly, the model of corporatism is weakened; Lastly,the United States trade unions is short of the strategy to treat the changes of working class structure.The third part is the analysis of the problems and the inspiration.In this part, the history and current situation of the trade unions in China are expounded, and the outstanding problems of China’s trade unions are pointed out. Differences in organizational structure, functions, independence, means of labor relations processing of the Chinese and American trade unions were analyzed. Finally, this paper discusses the inspiration of the change of American trade unions for Chinese trade unions:Trade unions should improve their appeal to the disadvantaged groups; they should improve low-income defense against economic risk; Their function in the formulation of the income distribution policy should be strengthened; their development should be based on the enhancement of workers’awareness of the rights; social labor movement model should be established; self construction should be strengthened and a strike is a "double-edged sword".