A Study On The Role And Functions Of Labor Unions In Colleges And Universities

In China, the labor union in higher education institutions is usually voluntarily-organized by the staff and faculty. It links the Party Committee of the university and its staff, and plays an indispensable role in the construction of the modern university system. According to the Labor Union Law of the PRC and the Statute of the Chinese Labor Unions, labor unions should perform four functions: “representing and protecting the interest of workers”, “participating in the administration of national affairs, economic and cultural affairs and social affairs”, “ promoting economic and social construction” and “providing workers with ideological, political, cultural and technological education”. However, in reality, the practice of the positioning and functioning of the labor unions in higher education is flawed and criticized; its drawbacks mainly manifested in two aspects: one is that the labor union in higher education institutions has lost its unique role and become a department for Part affairs and university administration, and the other is that the functions of the labor union in higher education are weakening, lacking sound system and necessary strength for rights protection. These two drawbacks constitute an endless cycle: the losing of unique role inevitably leads to the weakening of its functions while the latter one accordingly consolidates the former one. The mismatching of its role and functions would exert lasting influences on both. Hence, this study, taking the role and functions of the labor unions in higher education institutions as its research subject, carries certain realistic significance and theoretical value.This paper, through a systematic reorganization of the historical development of the role and functions of labor unions in China, has located the key issues in the development of Chinese labor unions in higher education institutions. Moreover, taking labor unions of four universities in Guangzhou to illustrate, this paper applies economics theories to probe into the reasons behind the positioning of labor unions and its loss of functions and draws following conclusions:(1) The role and function of Chinese labor unions have special historical background and conditions, which is closely linked with the fate and development of the communist party of China. Before the founding of new China, roles and responsibilities of Chinese labor unions is mainly under the leadership of the communist party of China to carry out the labor movement and to carry on the revolutionary struggle for power. After the founding of new China, the union as a voluntary workers under the leadership of the communist party of China is an important social pillar and bridge between Chinese community party and mass workers. Chinese labor unions not only protect the national people's overall interests but also better express and safeguard the specific interests of workers in the process of promoting the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics, which has the fundamental difference from Western unions that only represent and protect workers' interests.(2) Chinese labor unions in higher education institutions are mass organization of staff. As a special Industrial union,labor unions in higher education institutions are in line with Chinese labor unions, which has an irreplaceable role in the construction of modern university system and in the internal governance structure in higher education institutions. But labor unions in higher education institutions face the difficulties and challenges of the role functions of assimilation and dissimilation, whose underlying cause is mainly the dependence of administrative management system, the imperfect construction of legal system, weak legal awareness and low quality of their staff.(3) In order to return the previous role and realize improvement of function, labor unions in higher education institutions must put forward solutions from the labor union election, the corporative qualifications of independent labor unions and operating mechanism of labor unions. That is to say, labor unions in higher education institutions combine direct and indirect election to elect labor unions' leaders; labor unions in higher education institutions must bear its own legal responsibility to change present situation of only having nominal power; labor unions in higher education institutions establish a teaching acting meeting to long-term mechanism, strengthen the functions and powers of deliberative, strengthen democratic appraisal system of school leadership, perfect the running mechanism of teaching acting meeting.