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Author Topic: Wal-Mart (in China) hosts Communist Party
sidra
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posted 01 January 2007 08:42 AM      Profile for sidra   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Chinese law makes it compulsory for any company or institution with 25 or more staff to set up its own trade union if staff request one.

The first Wal-Mart trade union in China was set up in mid-2006 and a union office recently opened at the company's HQ.

None of Wal-Mart's stores in the US has a union.

Wal-Mart, which is the world's largest retailer, opened its first Chinese store in 1996 and now employs more than 35,000 people in its China operations.

In March this year, it announced plans hire an additional 150,000 staff as part of a major expansion.

Wal-Mart has opened more than 60 stores in 34 cities across China and plans to open dozens more as it seeks to tap China's fast-growing retail market.

It is due to the mandatory unionization that China seems to -at least- enable significant enhancement of its citizens's standard of living. Beats the hollow title "Associates" in Wal-Mart stores across North America.


http://tinyurl.com/ycbs6a


From: Ontario | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged
jeff house
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posted 01 January 2007 08:56 AM      Profile for jeff house     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The hollow title of "union" is no better than any other hollow title.

Let us know when they go on strike or otherwise stand up for their members.

What's the wage there, by the way?


From: toronto | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Fidel
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posted 01 January 2007 10:36 AM      Profile for Fidel     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Well you're right, Jeff. But think about union activists imprisoned for life and even executed in Myanmar next door to China. China doesn't have a lot of things, but there are other Asian countries with a lot less on the basic human rights front. Unionization, I would think, is a first step toward bigger and better things. Before he passed on, JK Galbraith said that world-wide unionization of workers is what's needed to level the field.

So unless anyone wants to go to Myanmar or South Korea and help out the union brothers, China has at least accepted the general idea of organizing workers. Yale officials say that unionists in China are in communication with western labour leaders and discussing how to approach collective bargaining with management.

ETA: We've got token unions right here in North America if we consider the concessions and caving in to management in recent years.

[ 01 January 2007: Message edited by: Fidel ]


From: Viva La Revolución | Registered: Apr 2004  |  IP: Logged
sidra
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posted 01 January 2007 10:43 AM      Profile for sidra   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Let us know when they go on strike or otherwise stand up for their members. Jeff House

This is a foreign owned company, Jeff. Unless in instances of high corruption, workers will most certainly be allowed to get as much as they can.. maybe unlike in state-owned or chinese owned companies.


From: Ontario | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged
jeff house
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posted 01 January 2007 12:26 PM      Profile for jeff house     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
China has at least accepted the general idea of organizing workers.

Sure, but that is also a feature of corporatist dictatorships of fascist sympathy.

There was a huge union movement in Argentina which was simply used to enforce Peron's discipline, for example. Workers who wanted to strike or demanded benefits were just beaten up by the union's goons. Then the government could claim to have clean hands.


From: toronto | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Cueball
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posted 01 January 2007 01:38 PM      Profile for Cueball   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Actually China's "unions" are much more like guilds than unions.
From: Out from under the bridge and out for a stroll | Registered: Dec 2003  |  IP: Logged
Fidel
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posted 01 January 2007 06:05 PM      Profile for Fidel     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by jeff house:

Sure, but that is also a feature of corporatist dictatorships of fascist sympathy.


And they still come for the communists, social democrats, and union leaders in various countries.

And in China, the ACFTU is the largest trade union in the world today with 134 million members in 1,713,000 primary trade union organizations.


From: Viva La Revolución | Registered: Apr 2004  |  IP: Logged
remind
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posted 01 January 2007 09:22 PM      Profile for remind     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by jeff house:
What's the wage there, by the way?

Can't find exact amounts for all but some are listed in this article:

quote:
Skilled workers earn more in China than in India, a new survey of pay in two of the world's fastest growing economies has revealed.
According to Mercer, the average annual salary of a Chinese project manager is £12,173, compared to about £5,220 in India.

Accountants earn £4,677 in China compared to £2,956 in India while Chinese sales reps are paid £2,649 compared to £2,464 in India.

Even at the lowest end of the pay scale, skilled factory workers in China earn nearly £300 more a year than their Indian counterparts.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4436692.stm

Then I found this:

quote:
As an indicator of competitiveness, it would therefore be better to use unit labor cost, which takes into consideration both wages and labor productivity.

For example, although the average wage rate in China is only 2.1% that of the United States, productivity is also at only 2.7% that of the U.S., so that its unit labor cost (2.1/2.7 = 76.9%) is not so much different from that of the U.S. (Table 1). If other factors such as China's high capital costs, poor infrastructure and weak legal system, are taken into consideration, its advantage in international competitiveness is further diluted.


http://www.rieti.go.jp/en/china/02083001.html

and this:

quote:
China warns on wage gap 'unrest' ... However, the most affluent one-fifth of China's population earn 50% of total income, with the bottom one-fifth taking home only 4.7%. Last year the average rural income was 2,936 yuan ($362), less than one-third of the urban income of 9,422 yuan.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4266964.stm

Interesting about the rural income, as I was watching a documentary on the rice terraces of the Dragons Back, on Discovery. The land and terraces have been given to the rice farmers, who have lived there for 20 generations, to do what they will with it. The documentary showed that their prosperity is growing, as they move into free markets of their own making from what is now their own land.

As long as you consider prosperity is TV and the ability to become a rampent consumer, I supppose. No, that was not an accurate depiction on my part, as this new rural prosperity and access to the surplus, has meant there has been no years of starvation amongst the farmers that grow.


From: "watching the tide roll away" | Registered: Jun 2004  |  IP: Logged
brookmere
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posted 03 January 2007 03:00 AM      Profile for brookmere     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
China's "unions" are, of course, state-controlled stooges. Free trade unions are prohibited in China.

Read the wording in the following carefully:

quote:
Chinese law makes it compulsory for any company or institution with 25 or more staff to set up its own trade union if staff request one

Not to say that the official unions might not serve some useful purpose smoothing out problems. They don't want the workers to get all lathered and taking things into their own hands, after all.

[ 03 January 2007: Message edited by: brookmere ]


From: BC (sort of) | Registered: Jun 2005  |  IP: Logged
Fidel
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posted 03 January 2007 10:24 AM      Profile for Fidel     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Vote on labour contract law put off
By Zhu Zhe (China Daily)

quote:
The country's top legislature yesterday reviewed the second draft of the controversial labour contract law but decided not to vote on it.

The eight-chapter draft that details the establishment, revocation, revision, and termination of labour contracts will be the first such law of its kind if passed by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC).

However, disagreements between representatives of employees and employers have slowed the legislative process, and lawmakers decided not to vote on the draft at this session pending more amendments.

The current draft made key changes to the first draft submitted last December in clauses regarding probationary period, retrenchment and compensation for the termination of contracts. ...

Tian Chengping, minister of labour and social security, said during the draft's first reading that the existing labour contract system, set up in line with the Labour Law enacted in 1994, requires an update following dramatic changes in the labour market.

A lack of minimal labour protection and the imbalance between labour supply and demand have resulted in severe infringements of workers' rights. Millions of foreign and domestic employers arbitrarily set wages and working hours, as well as working and living conditions.

The NPC received 191,849 public suggestions in one month after the draft was published in March for consultation. Only the Constitution, in 1954, received more.

Some employers, fearing rising labour costs, strongly oppose the bill.

However, Xin Chunying, deputy director of NPC's Law Committee, yesterday said members agree that it is urgent to have a contract law to protect workers' rights as it is a matter of public interest and social stability.



From: Viva La Revolución | Registered: Apr 2004  |  IP: Logged
jeff house
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posted 03 January 2007 03:21 PM      Profile for jeff house     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Interesting article. So they have "unions", but no contracts.

I haven't seen much evidence that the Chinese Communist Party, in its present incarnation, is very likely to stand up for workers.

They prefer foreign investment.


From: toronto | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Fidel
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posted 03 January 2007 06:02 PM      Profile for Fidel     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by jeff house:
Interesting article. So they have "unions", but no contracts.

I haven't seen much evidence that the Chinese Communist Party, in its present incarnation, is very likely to stand up for workers.


It looks like collective bargaining is at least an issue with the CPC. We will see what kind of "ammendments" are added to the proposal when and if it's legislated by Beijing.

When China's union leaders begin to be bumped off, like the contract killing of Dutta Samant in Mumbai in 1997, we'll know that labour leaders in China are a going concern. Meanwhile, the CPC owns majority, or large minority shares in all foreign corporations doing business in China. Imagine our impotent colonial administrators in Ottawa demanding controlling interest in GM or Imperial Oil's Canadian operations.

quote:
They prefer foreign investment.

The CPC seems to have screwed up. They have this proposal to allow the largest trade union in the world to bargain on behalf of Chinese workers. The hardliners should have killed it before it found its way into the skunkworks.


From: Viva La Revolución | Registered: Apr 2004  |  IP: Logged

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