Shenzhen proposes right to strike

Getty Images via DaylifeShenzhen Municipality has proposed legislation that would allow workers to strike, writes DNA India in a thorough report about China's labor situation.
It follows on earlier stories in April indicating that China legislators were contemplating a limited introduction of the right to strike.

The right to strike was excised from China’s Constitution in 1982 as part of an amendment on the grounds that the political system in place had “eradicated problems between the proletariat and enterprise owners”. Since then the word “bagong” (strike) has remained taboo in Chinese legislation, and been replaced instead by references to “tinggong” (work-stoppage) or “daigong” (slowdown).

The debate on why these changes take place is still ongoing. Global Labor Strategies made a good overview of all those changes. In DNA India Hong Kong based dissident Han Dongfeng attributes those to an effective workers' strategy:

The promulgation of three major labour laws in one year indicates just how effective workers’ action has been in forcing the government’s hand, says Han. “These laws have not been introduced because the government is particularly enlightened, but because workers’ strikes and protests against widespread and continued rights violations have left the government with no option but to change the law, as a means of forestalling increased labour conflict.”

My take would be slightly different. As indicated on this weblog many times before, China is heading for a labor shortage, and it is already effective in parts of China's industrial centras. That gives at least a part of the work force more leverage to negotiate better deals and offers them more opportunities to choose. That forces also the more institutional forces, including China's only allowed trade union ACFTU, to take action.