ReDress Interview with China Labour Bulletin

The ReDress Consultancy speaks to China Labour Bulletin’s Communications Director Geoffrey Crothall on labour and wages in China.

http://www.clb.org.hk/en/

The China Labour Bulletin is a non-governmental organization founded in Hong Kong in 1994, China Labour Bulletin has grown from a small monitoring and research group into a proactive outreach organization that seeks to defend and promote the rights of workers in China. It have extensive links and wide-ranging co-operative programs with labour groups, law firms and academics throughout China, as well as with the international labour movement.

Through these programs, China Labour Bulletin supports the development of democratically-run trade unions, encourage respect for and enforcement of the country’s labour laws, as well as the full participation of workers in the creation of civil society. They seek the official recognition in China of international standards and conventions providing for workers’ freedom of association and the right to free collective bargaining.

CLB founder and director Han Dongfang (韩东方) has been an advocate for workers’ rights in China for more than two decades. He first came to international prominence when, as a railway worker in Beijing, he helped set up China’s first independent trade union, the Beijing Autonomous Workers’ Federation (BAWF), during the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. He was expelled to Hong Kong in 1993; where the following year he set up CLB

Communications Director Geoffrey Crothall manages CLB’s websites and is the organization’s spokesman. He first worked in China in 1984, and spent five years in the 1990s as the South China Morning Post Correspondent in Beijing. Chinese website editor Cai Chongguo (蔡崇国) was exiled from China after 1989, and since then has been a tireless advocate for workers’ rights in China, working closely with trade union groups and NGOs in Europe and across the world.

The ReDress Consultancy's interview with Geoffrey Crothall of China Labour Bulletin

@ 7 December 2010

ReDress: There is still a perception from South Africa that wages in the Chinese clothing and textile sector are extremely low (slave wages) however, there are signs that this is changing and wages are increasing. What, in your opinion brought this change and in comparison to China’s neighbors such as Cambodia, Bangladesh, Vietnam are the wage higher or lower?

CLB: Wages are certainly increasing in China but the wages of the poorest paid workers are not increasing as fast as average wages. The minimum wage in nearly all parts of China is still far from being a living wage. The recent increases in wages have largely been brought about by pressure from the workforce, in the form of strikes etc, and by government moves to boost wages in order to increase domestic consumption. I would say wages in many parts of China are already higher than in Cambodia, Bangladesh and Vietnam.

ReDress: It is my understanding that union activity is still restricted and that there is only one union in China is this correct?

CLB: The sole legally mandated trade union is the All-China Federation of Trade Unions. 
See link for more details:
http://www.clb.org.hk/en/files/share/File/research_reports/acftu_report.pdf

ReDress: I have read that collective bargaining is beginning to take shape in China, do you know if this is happing in the clothing and textile sector?

CLB: The government, at various levels, is talking about collective bargaining but there is still no real system in place that encourages or even allows genuine worker participation in the process. The only collective bargaining that happens in China is when workers go out on strike and management or local government officials urge them to negotiate.

ReDress: Are you not afraid that China’s market advantage through low wages will result in a decline in the clothing and textile sectors, which could result in retrenchments?

CLB: The textile sector in China seems to be moving more towards automation anyway, which is reducing the number of low-paid labour intensive jobs. But many of those laid-off are able to find alternative employment in other industries.

ReDress: Do you feel that it is the global market / buyers that continually push down prices and force the manufacturers to accept even lower prices, which result in lower wages for the workers?

CLB: That certainly seems to be the case.

ReDress: Do you think that China is trying to change the perception that they produce cheap good with cheap labour and have plans to move production (quality) up the value-chain?

CLB: There are certainly cities and regions in China that are trying to move up the production value chain, Shenzhen is the most obvious example. However, there are still many poorer, inland regions that still rely on poorly paid and unskilled labour to produce low value products.

ReDress: How would your organization respond to the argument that wages levels should be linked to productivity?

CLB: Wages should be determined through a process of collective bargaining. If the two parties at a bargaining session agree that wages can be linked to productivity then that should be reflected in the final collective labour agreement

ReDress: The South African clothing sector has proposed a new wage model. It basically proposes that new entrants into the clothing sector should receive a minimum lower wage than is currently prescribed by the government to allow employment growth and the industry to grow. The South African clothing sector argues that their proposal will create 1000s of new jobs. As a labour organization, how would you respond to such a proposal?

CLB: I don’t know enough about this issue to make a judgment. But, certainly, suggesting that workers get paid less than the legal minimum wage is unacceptable, especially if the minimum wage is already at a very low level, as is the case in China.

Ends.