Strikes call for collective bargaining
- Source: Global Times
- [00:52 June 02 2010]
- Comments
To many Chinese, strikes are a distant memory, typically only found in literary plots depicting China before 1949 when the PRC was founded.
The recent strike at Japanese automaker Honda's China factories that forced four assembly plants to suspend operations surprised many.
We have forgotten that striking, intense as it may seem, is a common tactic used when management and labor struggle over benefit and wage disagreements.
Just recently, a strike by British Airway cabin crew disrupted the travel plans of many in Europe. In 2005, a strike by New York subway workers forced many New Yorkers to walk to work in the middle of a freezing winter.
China has long been known for its abundant supply of cheap labor, but now the country's new generation of workers has started adopting strikes as a way to get better benefits. The trend is not limited to workers in coastal areas. In recent years, taxi drivers in several inland cities have sought to reach a better welfare deal with their employers by walking out.
Admittedly, in the three decades of opening-up, ordinary workers are among those who have received the smallest share of economic prosperity.
Insufficient labor protection is also a sad result of an oversupply in China's workforce. Who has the guts to challenge an employer when any job opening would soon be filled by many more applicants?
Nowadays, with growing awareness of their rights, and equipped with new communicat ion technology, skilled workers are expressing their requirements with a louder voice. The new version of the Labor Law and minimum wage standards are often cited as legal safeguards of their rights.
As the examples of the British Airway and New York subway workers suggest, strikes do not happen only in underdeveloped regions.
