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From “Iron Rice Bowl” to Labor Market in Two Decades: Changing Workplace Relations in the People's Republic of China on the Eve of WTO Entry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2016

Sek-Hong Ng  and
Malcolm Warner
Sek-Hong Ng
Affiliation:
University of Hong Kong
Malcolm Warner
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
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Abstract

This article examines how management-labor relations and labor legislation have evolved in China since Deng Xiaoping's “Open Door” reforms were introduced in 1979 and how they have changed over the two decades since then. We reconsider the role of Chinese trade unions, enterprises and the state agencies involved, as they move from an employment system that was once called the “iron rice bowl” to a new one based on market forces. This change raises serious dilemmas and issues: are there contradictions between preserving workers' rights and at the same time, enhancing productivity? Does such a transition constitute the onset of “collective bargaining” and a labor-market in the Western sense? How are such shifts likely to be affected by China's entry into the WTO in late 2001? These and other related questions are analysed in the article.

Keywords

ACFTUChinacollective bargainingcollective contractseconomic reformshuman resourcesILOindustrial relationsiron rice bowllabor legislationlabor-marketmanagement-labor relationsPRCtrade unionsworkplace relationsWTO.
Type
Articles
Information
Journal of East Asian Studies , Volume 2 , Issue 2 , August 2002 , pp. 7 - 35
Copyright
Copyright © East Asia Institute 

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