Emerging labour movement seeks better deals for workers
Association wants collective bargaining rights with Walmart stores
When Zhang Jun, a 44-yearold electrician at a Wal-Mart store east of Beijing, shared a Mao-era propaganda poster on his Weibo blog, he was making a point.
In it, Mao beams over a group of mobilized workers, above a caption that reads: “The working class must lead everything.” Zhang wasn’t expressing his affection for Mao, but was using the Communist leader’s words as part of a cat-and-mouse game with China’s only legal trade union — and Zhang’s own capitalist bosses in Bentonville, Ark.
Zhang leads a movement called the “Wal-Mart China Staff Association.” It is neither huge, nor high-profile, and doesn’t have a national political agenda. What these activists are fighting for is the right to elect their trade union committee, one with collective bargaining power.
The fight at Wal-Mart China is unique because it aspires to transform the only union that’s allowed to exist in China, the socalled All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU). Zhang and a small cadre of like-minded organizers are demanding the right to elect their own leaders at their respective stores, a process they say has been hijacked by Walmart since it was forced to accept unionization in 2006.
Their dispute is part of an emerging labour rights movement, and the consequences are far-reaching. “In five to 10 years, (Chinese) workers will be able to reclaim the union through collective bargaining, and that (would be) the biggest national union on earth with bargaining power,” says Han Dongfang, founder and director at China Labour Bulletin, a non-governmental organization founded in Hong Kong.
But labour activism could have even bigger consequences for foreign companies looking to take advantage of lower wages and access to the huge Chinese market. Operational risk analysts at Business Monitor International say movements such as Zhang’s could make it harder for Western companies to manage costs as China’s economy slows.
Canadian direct investment in China stood at only about $6.7 billion in 2014, but Canada-China relations improved under former prime minister Stephen Harper, and China is currently Canada’s second-largest trade partner.
Wal-Mart entered the Chinese market in 1996 as one of the first foreign retailers with ambitious expansion plans. Nineteen years later, it has only 411 stores — with more than 100,000 employees — across the country, compared with 5,163 outlets in the United States. The rate of expansion has slowed due to heavy competition from domestic retailers.
Under pressure from the government-controlled ACFTU, Walmart became the first foreign company to accept unionization of its workforce in 2006. But since then, the union has stood largely on the sidelines, activists say. Although several municipal-level branches of the ACFTU convinced Wal-Mart in 2008 to raise its wages by eight per cent in both 2008 and 2009, Walmart activists say wages have stagnated since then.
Activists say it’s because Wal-Mart’s union committees are controlled by management-- appointed representatives, socalled “yellow union committees.” China’s labour laws and ACFTU policy theoretically allow workers to elect their own representatives, but in practice, Wal-Mart makes the appointments, the activists claim.
Marilee McInnis, Walmart’s director of international corporate affairs, said the company’s policy is to “protect the interest of associates (employees) while promoting the sustainable development of the company, provide competitive wages and have resources in place to train and develop associates.”
There are signs that the ACFTU itself may be primed for change.
In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping asked the ACFTU to “protect workers’ interests and promote social justice to win public trust and support,” and to set up trade unions as a genuine “home for employees.” Local branches of the ACFTU have said that they’re aiming to adopt direct elections in the next few years.
“In five to 10 years,( Chinese) workers will be able to re claim the union through collective bargaining, and that (would be) the biggest national union on earth with bargaining power.
HAN DONGFANG CHINA LABOUR BULLETIN