Collective Bargaining in China

According to China Labour Bulletin, nearly twelve of the recorded strikes in June this year in China were resolved by some form of collective bargaining. The analysis of China Labour Bulletin suggested that collective bargaining would be a possible solution for the upcoming labour disputes in China. This article is to document some observations I made while I was in China this summer working with Laowei labour law firm in Shenzhen. 

Can Chinese Workers Eat Apple?

On 24 September, the iPhone 5 was launched in the first nine countries/areas, America, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, Singapore, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong. It will go on to be launched in 22 more countries in the week beginning 1 October. The first weekend’s sales were very impressive, reaching 5 million. This number already broke Apple’s previous record for first-weekend sales of all previous models of iPhone. I wonder, when all those Apple fans are camping outside to be ‘the first customer’ or at least ‘first group of customers’ to buy the iPhone 5, has any of the fans thought about the making of this most advanced, light, cool gadget? This paper links the hot-selling phenomenon of the iPhone 5 to the Chinese workers, for the very reason that most of Apple’s iProducts are manufactured in China.

Recovered Factories in Argentina: on the thought of Chinese workers

I went to Bueos Aires for attending Second ISA Forum of Sociology from August 1 to 4. This article is do document my observations during the conference, though I have to confess that most of my observations were not coming from the conference rooms....

Gangster Nation—Not Only An On-Line Game

Starting from this year February, we heard that some Chinese labour NGOs were forced to close down or move to other places, especially in the south part of China. Until now, the labour NGOs seems to endure if not more at least not less pressure from the government. This article is to share my personal observation about this situation. 

Chinese labour in the global economy – ESRC large research grant!

Prof. Andreas Bieler and I have been awarded a grant of £275k by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for a project on ‘Globalisation, national transformation and workers’ rights: an analysis of Chinese labour within the global economy’ (RES-062-23-2777; full project proposal). The project runs from 1 October 2011 to 30 September 2014. On this blog, I will regularly provide a discussion of empirical findings related to this project.