Exploring the Impact of Workers' Activism on Workplace Labour Relations: Case Studies in Shenzhen and Suzhou

The rise of China has been reshaping the world’s political economy. Since its economic reform in 1978, China has been seen as driving the ‘race to the bottom’ competition amongst developing countries and exerting a negative impact on global labour standards (A. Chan, 2003). In recent years, scholarly work on Chinese labour has been dominated by two distinct strands. The first strand is influenced by the tradition of institutional analysis and has made trade unions as the centre of inquiry. The second strand reflects the sociologists’ concern and focuses more on the management’s control and labour resistance in workplace (‘labour regime’). These two strands have started to pay attention to common themes, such as the rising patterns of migrant workers’ protests, but they still have different emphases. While the primary interest of the institutional analysis scholars lies in the role of trade unions and state authorities in mediating labour conflicts (A. Chan, 2011; Chen, 2010; Gallagher, 2005), the framework of class formation has been introduced by the sociological strand to discuss labour protests (Lee, 2007; Chan and Pun, 2009; Leung and Pun, 2009; Pun and Lu, 2010). This has left an important research gap in the field: what is the impact of labour protest on the institutional settings of the Chinese industrial relations? While our previous and ongoing research has suggested that the waves of strikes have exercised pressure on the party-state to introduce a policy framework that emphasizes on workers’ collective rights, essentially collective bargaining and trade union reform (C. Chan, 2010; Chan and Hui, 2012; forthcoming), we know little about the implementation of these initiatives and their impact on power relations in the workplace after the strikes. This research endeavors to fill this intellectual gap. On the one hand, it assesses the extent to which labour resistance has shaped the institutions regulating the workplace labour relations; on the other, it evaluates the effectiveness of the party-state’s attempt to mediate labour conflicts via the new regulations and mechanism. Drawing upon Burawoy (1985)’s insights on two forms of labour regimes in industrial capitalism—despotism and hegemony, this research will examine the potentials and limitations of workers’ activism in transforming the despotic labour regime within the new regulation and policy framework. Also, by comparing two major export-oriented cities in southern and eastern China, Shenzhen and Suzhou respectively, the role of the local state and local regulations in workplace relations will be explored.