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Author Topic: Communist Party organizes cell in Chinese Wal-Mart
unionist
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 11323

posted 18 December 2006 10:20 PM      Profile for unionist     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Yes, you read that right:

Wal-Mart's CPC branch applauded

quote:
Setting up branches of the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) within overseas-funded companies will help improve relations between labour and management, observers said.

The comments come shortly after Wal-Mart, the US retailing giant, opened a CPC branch at its Chinese headquarters in this southern city on Friday.

"The CPC branch will focus its efforts on improving the communications between the employer and the employees, providing mediation when disputes arise and helping employees in need, which will be good for the company," Liu Lin, a professor of Party construction at the Shenzhen Party School, told China Daily yesterday.

She said the employees would have no way to address potential problems if were not for the Party branch.

She added that the Party would help the company avoid mass walk-outs or other forms of industrial action.


Excellent! Watch for Stephen Harper to invite the Chinese Communist Party to a factory near you!


From: Vote QS! | Registered: Dec 2005  |  IP: Logged
jeff house
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 518

posted 19 December 2006 09:08 AM      Profile for jeff house     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
When a political party is the backbone of the state, it is unlikely that it can protect workers-on-the-job.

The state wants industry, investment, and "efficient" work practices.

So, they create party unions which deliver that, but not protection for the workers.


From: toronto | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Cueball
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posted 19 December 2006 04:13 PM      Profile for Cueball   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
None of us could ever have figured that out.

Of course, anyone with any sense of humour at all would know that the reason this story was posted because it is just so damm funny. Here is Wal-mart the ultra-capitalist enterprise, happily cooperating with the communist party union.


From: Out from under the bridge and out for a stroll | Registered: Dec 2003  |  IP: Logged
Fidel
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Babbler # 5594

posted 19 December 2006 08:54 PM      Profile for Fidel     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
This is relatively good news for unions around the world. It will set a precedent and srtategy for unionizing Chinese workers employed in other foreign-based businesses operating in China. According to Yale Global reporting online, "The union has since turned to Western unions for advice on collective bargaining and other organization techniques."

I don't think things like this would just happen in a country like Burma, or in the Maquiladoras, or in democratic capitalist India, for example.


From: Viva La Revolución | Registered: Apr 2004  |  IP: Logged
John K
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posted 20 December 2006 09:11 AM      Profile for John K        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Fidel, you're kidding, right?
From: Edmonton | Registered: Nov 2002  |  IP: Logged
Fidel
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 5594

posted 20 December 2006 11:58 AM      Profile for Fidel     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I'm serious. The question is, are you serious ?. I realize there are human rights violations happening in China. There are workers losing fingers and limbs in factory machinery and are without workman's comp or insurance of any sort. And there are only a handful of human right's lawyers in China going to bat for all of those disabled workers working in unsafe environments. But the point is, the CPC isn't stopping them from fighting for compensation. They need a lot of things in China. However, it's a far cry from forced labour in countries like Burma. There are gross human rights violations happening in countries our MSM tends to make mention of very quietly on back page articles and mostly not at all.

I remember Bob White saying there wasn't a week went by that the CLC wasn't called on to bail a union brother out of jail in Mexico. Union organizing in countries like Mexico was a known health hazard in the recent past.

[ 20 December 2006: Message edited by: Fidel ]


From: Viva La Revolución | Registered: Apr 2004  |  IP: Logged
Frustrated Mess
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posted 20 December 2006 12:57 PM      Profile for Frustrated Mess   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Fidel, you are kidding. I have been following this story for a long time. At the same time Wal-Mart was being criticized for busting a union in Canada, it was agreeing to communist party unions in China. A state controlled union that ensures workers are obedient is the only type of union Wal-Mart will accept.
From: doom without the gloom | Registered: Feb 2005  |  IP: Logged
Fidel
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posted 20 December 2006 02:18 PM      Profile for Fidel     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Don't mention the word "union" in Burma or Mexico, is what I'm saying.

Obviously, just having a union structure in place is a positive thing for China. China is not Canada or Britain. We shouldn't compare apples and oranges, because China's labour movement isn't where labour is in Canada, where it's had to fight tooth and nail to get where they are here and taking one step forward and two backward. China was a fourth world country as recently as 1949 and at a time when Canada was still an under-achieving resource-rich nation ourselves. We're talking about a country where people were born in rice paddies and died in the same general viscinity an average of 30 years later leading up to the Maoists seizing power.

Trade unionism didn't just happen overnight in Canada like its not going to in China, or Myanmar, a country that borders China and one which we rarely even read about in newspapers, it's that disappointing wrt basic human rights in general.

[ 20 December 2006: Message edited by: Fidel ]


From: Viva La Revolución | Registered: Apr 2004  |  IP: Logged
Adam T
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posted 20 December 2006 02:39 PM      Profile for Adam T     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I'm sure this will be the first business where if you complain to the union you'll get fired.
From: Richmond B.C | Registered: Nov 2003  |  IP: Logged
John K
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posted 20 December 2006 03:32 PM      Profile for John K        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The relationship between the Chinese Communist Party, its officially sanctioned "trade union", and retailing giant Wal-Mart is so cozy it would make CLAC blush.

To wit:

quote:
Union leaders in China often wear three hats. Even as they represent workers, they often hold management jobs. Moreover, they usually are party cadres. Since unions are aligned with government goals for rapid economic growth, union chiefs often side with factory or business owners even when serious safety and wage issues emerge.

"They want harmonious labor relations," said Qiao, the labor expert.

Chen, the Nanjing labor boss, echoed that sentiment: "We trade union leaders will never organize the employees in launching a strike or to ask for unreasonable benefits."



http://tinyurl.com/y22pv7

Wal-Mart's motivations for cozying up to the Chinese Communist Party are not hard to decipher. Wal-Mart sees this as their ticket to expanding their Chinese market share at the expense of their European-based retailing competitors whose corporate ethics don't allow for something quite so blatant.


From: Edmonton | Registered: Nov 2002  |  IP: Logged
Fidel
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posted 20 December 2006 05:02 PM      Profile for Fidel     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
Originally posted by Adam T:
I'm sure this will be the first business where if you complain to the union you'll get fired.

They have a token union for now. Yale says they are in communications with western labour leaders and discussing how to negotiate with management by collective bargaining.

And consider that Myo Aung Thant was sentenced to life imprisonment for labour organization activities inside Burma.

Nai Min Kyi, Yae Myint, and Naing Yatha, members of Federation of Trade Unions of Burma, were charged with treason and sentenced to death.
===

736 South Korean union members detained in one day, 63 union members still in jail, 1 union member dead, more than 200 members injured, 1 member's wife miscarried - 08/06

[ 21 December 2006: Message edited by: Fidel ]


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

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