Do Spreading Auto Strikes Mean Hope for a Workers'
Movement in China?
by Lu Zhang
Labor Notes
July 13, 2010
http://labornotes.org/2010/06/do-spreading-auto-strikes-mean-hope-workers-movement-china

A flurry of strikes in Honda parts plants in China has
produced the longest and most significant work
stoppages and wage gains for workers there in recent
years. Is this the opening wave in a tide of resistance
that will lead to a transformation of work and labor in
China? The beginning of the end of the global race to
the bottom? Or something else?

The historic events unfolded when a two-week strike at
the Honda transmission and engine parts plant in
southern Guangdong province shut down the company's
four assembly plants and many parts plants throughout
China in late May. Worker-representatives met with
management for six-hour negotiations June 4, and, in
the presence of top local officials, reached an
agreement to raise monthly wages by 24 percent, to
about $280.

In addition to a pay increase and a better training
system, workers also demanded the right to
democratically elect the factory's union officers.

Notably, the strike was organized and fought by the
workers themselves. The factory branch of the All-China
Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), the country's sole
official union, did not stand by them or represent them
in negotiations.

This is perhaps not surprising given that the ACFTU in
practice has worked in line with the government and
employers to enforce labor discipline and mediate
labor-management conflicts to keep production running
smoothly.

As one of the striking Honda workers complained in an
Internet posting, "at this critical moment our great
trade union did nothing for us. Instead they just
wanted us to go back to the production line! Is this
what a union should be doing? You take from our monthly
wages 5 yuan [75 cents] for union dues but look what
you have done for us!"

ASSAULT ON STRIKERS

Indeed, the union fought the strikers. The district
government sent district-level union officials and
others to assault workers May 31, hospitalizing four
young workers. In response, most workers walked out
again.

The turning point came June 1, when the workers elected
16 worker-representatives through mediation by members
of the National People's Congress and in the presence
of management and higher-level union officials.

The new representatives pledged not to reach any
agreement without the endorsement of a workers'
assembly, and demanded from management time off for
assemblies for all production workers on all shifts.
After the general manager agreed in principle to
negotiate, workers resumed production, beginning with
the night shift June 1.

The wage settlement was accepted by a workers' vote
three days later, but it's not yet known if they will
be allowed to democratically choose their union
representatives.

The district union, in an unprecedented move, sent an
open letter of "apology" to the workers. Defensive and
vague, the letter claimed that the union was only doing
its job as a mediator between management and employees,
and urged both sides to make concessions. The letter
admitted some of the union methods were a bit difficult
to accept and might have been "misunderstood as siding
with management."

The elected worker-representatives responded,
emphasizing that their victory was won by the strike
despite the union's complicity with management. They
expressed outrage that the union tried to take credit
for "the fruits of the workers' struggles" and insisted
that the factory union should be elected by the workers
themselves.

Inspired by the victory, workers at Honda's other two
part plants in Guangdong province-one producing exhaust
systems and the other vehicle locks-walked out June 7
and 9, demanding higher wages, less strenuous working
hours, and the right to elect union officers.

Some workers agreed to an enhanced wage-and-benefits
package and resumed some production June 12, while the
door-lock strike was apparently busted by scabs and
threats made against strike leaders, one of whom went
into hiding.

YOUTH IN BLOOM

The strikers' success has demonstrated the growing
bargaining power and consciousness of the younger
generation of Chinese workers.

In the experience of auto workers in the U.S. in the
early 20th century and in Western Europe in the 1950s
and 1960s, the first generation migrating to work in
the plants generally did not protest the harsh
conditions of work and life. Management's arbitrary
power over hiring, firing, and job assignments went
mostly unchallenged.

But the second generation became the backbone of
militant struggles that radically transformed
relationships with the factory and throughout society.
The Honda strikers seem to be in this tradition,
demonstrating their willingness, determination, and
capacity to mobilize collectively to struggle.

Indeed, the strikes quickly produced a ripple effect,
with a wave of strikes in several cities pushing a
rapid trend towards wage increases.

The Honda strike also illustrates the growing power
Chinese workers derive from a labor shortage caused by
changing demographics and increasing education levels.
China's transition from an export-led economy focused
on rock-bottom cheap labor to a more balanced one based
on domestic consumption and thereby higher wages is
also sure to push through major changes at the
workplace.

TURNING POINT?

Will other factory workers be able to seize the
opportunity to demand the right to represent themselves
and confront harsh working conditions?

The peaceful resolution of the Honda strikes may invite
the opportunity to establish a real collective
bargaining system in China. Although it will be very
difficult for such an effort to survive within the
government-controlled ACFTU framework, there are
reasons for cautious optimism.

For one thing, the ACFTU will likely become more
aggressive and responsive, under the pressure that it
might become totally irrelevant to both workers and
state bureaucrats. If it cannot deliver any meaningful
gains for workers, it cannot play its historical role
of containing labor unrest.

Faced with mounting unrest in recent years, government
leaders have explicitly required unions to help "build
a harmonious society." But given that the government
tightly controls the ACFTU and is unlikely to allow any
independent unions to exist, it will be hard for the
ACFTU to dramatically transform itself.

A more realistic expectation might be that local-level
unions, in particular, the municipal and district
unions, could become more representative. Recent
studies have found growing bottom-up experiments in
some regional unions, which have become more engaged in
organizing workers and negotiating with employers as
local governments lean on both to guarantee industrial
peace.

More than anything, workers' bottom-up protests drive
meaningful change, in both organizing and reform of the
official unions. Yet it is also possible that workers'
enthusiasm for developing institutionalized collective
bargaining and organizations under workers' control may
be tamped down as their wages increase. There is also
the danger of a backlash by the "pro-capital" camp
within the Chinese Communist Party.

Despite the uncertainty, it's a moment to celebrate.
The Honda strike represents the culmination of waves of
labor unrest in China since the mid-1990s. Chinese
workers from laid-off state workers to the new migrants
from the rural interior have been participating in
strikes and demonstrations in increasing numbers and
with increasing frequency in recent years.

The Honda strike, along with the scandal over workers'
suicides at an Apple supplier factory, have brought
questions about the rights and power of Chinese workers
front and center. Voices of labor advocacy inside
China, from some top government and union officials to
journalists and lawyers, are arguing the workers' side.
International labor allies should take cheer.

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