Roles Of China's Trade Unions In The 21st Century

This paper analyzes the current situation of Chinese trade unions,their roles and actions.Focusing mainly on two different type of workers: Migrant workers from a construction site;and Office workers from a high-tech company.As being two opposite sections of the labor market the obtained results are very interesting to compare.The main reason that driven me to choose this topic as a final dissertation for the Master program in China Studies was the existent discussion regarding the structure of Chinese Unions.Comparing with unions from other countries(especially western countries),the contrast with China is very wide.Trade Unions in China work in line with the government to promote good relations among the labor market actors.This point is a very discussed topic,proposing the question if unions that depend on a government can really represent their members.After finishing the research,it?s apparent that for the case of China,unions have proven to be more efficient working together with the government.Furthermore,the impact and results unions achieved in the Chinese labor sector are by no means to be underestimated.The purpose of this thesis is also to record positive aspects and changes occurred in trade unions in China,showing the genuine contributions in improving the work environment,work relations and life of workers.Unions are very important for every society and to keep the balance between the actors of the labor market,but constant changes are the characteristic of the situation in China.Hence,it is natural that trade unions are innovating and changing their roles as well.Social roles are an important new aspect of trade unions? agenda that can?t be belittled by any party of the labor market.In this matter,the argument on how trade unions should keep deepening these roles,more socially oriented and not only interfering inside factories is discussed.Furthermore,trade unions should not be present only in factories per se.They should also give voice to another type of employees that were not in the focus of the work relationships before,but due to the changes we are facing they are becoming the majority,such us office workers from private own enterprises.This research is based in Shanghai,offering an approach to workers in this multicultural city and financial center.During the investigation,face to face individual interviews were performed to find out about the worker's vision of trade unions and their main problems.Through this information,we were able to evaluate if unions are helping employees with those aspects,or if not,where these institutions need to improve.Trade unions are important as the interpreters between the two sectors of the labor market.Nevertheless,worker's opinions are fundamental for trade unions.If workers don?t trust them union?s efforts to improve labor relationships will lose effect.A full chapter of this paper is dedicated to the contributions of trade unions to other aspects of workers' life.If we talk about migrant workers,their cultural life is their main burden outside the workplace.A lack of cultural life for migrant workers sometimes lead to discrimination situations that can bring bigger problems in the future,such as the creation of a fragmented society.Besides this point,migrant workers? main problem inside the workplace is the delayed payment of the salaries.In this direction,enormous efforts are being done by the government and unions,resulting in a visible diminution of the problem.When talking about office workers,the result obtained from interviews and research,give us a totally different panorama.Office workers are not concerned by their payment,as much as they are about their health.The specific working conditions of this part of the population are resulting in some increasing health issues,plus bad lifestyle habits and lack of exercise makes the situation even worst.Furthermore,office employees also showed a bigger demand for welfare services and(most important of all)they expect this from trade unions.This far from being a problem is an opportunity that trade unions must take to grew closer to them.As the research shows,unions are not so active for these employees.Office employees reached unions when they need assistance,these institutions showed to be a great help to them but for the majority of the cases,the employee is approaching to trade unions instead of the other way around.The study conducted about the topic showed that trade unions are working a lot to ensure that workers' rights are being respected,but their actions related to the cultural life of migrant workers or the health of office workers are not strong enough.During the corresponding chapter of this paper,a few suggestions are proposed for trade unions to implement measures and improve this deficiency.Besides the data obtained by personal interviews,a secondary source of information was recent news about Trade Unions and labor issues in China,as well as recent academic papers.As there is an existing lack of recent works on the field,an important objective is to describe the current situation.To achieve this target,analysis of recent events is of major support.This academic paper is a great contribution as it analyzes the actual situation of trade unions in China,and records the most recent changes.Particularly,in the last 8years the panorama in China had suffered great changes.It may not be a lot for other countries,but in China due to its fast development be are facing a new paradigm.This thesis can be a tool for understanding the new situation,and how constructive the new roles performed by trade unions are,especially in comparison from those in the past.It is hoped this study will contribute to a further academic debate about this topic.Trade Unions are becoming more and more diverse,we are shifting from a“confrontation” paradigm(focusing on the negative aspects of the relationship between employee-employer)to a point of view where positive aspects and more fruitful dialogues between both sides of society are taking place,and where they are working together to achieve good results.Trade Unions nowadays create social plans to contribute to the society beyond the work-related conflicts and beyond the worker itself,sometimes taking care of the whole family.