Seeing
the interest aroused by the work on trade unionism in China and Vietnam (China and Vietnam: from "official" unionism to real unionism), I
attach the paragraphs on the same issue of the reports corresponding to two
trips to both countries:
1.- China
From
the September 2016 Report:
“.....
7.- Trade unionism and trade
union action in the companies we visited
Trade unionism, trade union action, in the
factories we visited did not provide anything new with regard to the Chinese
“trade unionism” that we are familiar with, i.e. in relation to official trade
unionism, the only one that we were able to examine in the garment and footwear
garment. In fact, we could speak about “non-trade unionism.”
In a 2015 interview with the ACFTU
management, they spoke about a curious pilot experience precisely in the
Guangzhou area (which, along with its importance in China’s footwear industry,
was one of the reasons that brought us back here), explaining that they had
established a new rule that forbade the company owners or their relatives from
“chairing” the company trade union. The ACFTU management then rejected our
suggestion to agree on a joint trade union approach to this “new and
interesting” initiative and its application.
However, we returned to Guangzhou and we
found a similar situation. Now in all the “big” companies (not in the one with
150 workers, considered “small”), membership was officially 100%. However, some
workers did not know if their company had a trade union and found it difficult
to identify the trade union –we had to ask them if they knew who “organised the
karaoke” (they had no identification problems in this case). The term “trade
union” had no meaning for them.
It is true that we
did not find any company owners, or their relatives, chairing the unions. In
this regard, we only came across a vice-manager in one, the head of accounting
in another, and an official designated by the local ACFTU organisation and
hired as such by the company, in the third factory; and the head of personnel
as vice-president and other top executives.
In relation to the election system, only
one had recently applied (and this was an excuse to tell us that they were still
learning what was expected of them and were even participating in training
courses in the trade union’s local premises) the procedure contemplated in
Chinese legislation. This involves a first electoral phase in which a few
delegates are voted for and then these in turn choose the trade union
management in the next phase. In the rest, the procedure varied little from
more or less irregular systems summarised as follows: the bosses, or the
company management directly, choose the President and Vice-President, and each
departments chooses a delegate that is more or less agreed on or indicated from
above. However, all of this takes place without most workers’ participation and
even without their knowledge.
In relation to trade
union action, the only matter that everyone agreed on was in the organisation
of events, particularly karaoke. And some opinions related the “trade union”
with some kind of welfare work. When asked about the concept of collective
bargaining, agreements, nobody knew about its existence; even a company union
vice-president (who was also head of personnel) was unaware of this concept.
One of the workers we interviewed mistook the “bosses” of the company trade
union (one that I knew existed but had heard little about) for those of the Communist
Party (ChCP).
In relation to the trade union quota, the
situation was the same as the one detected on previous trips. In two companies,
the trade union managements knew about an individual quota of 2 RMB (less than
0.30 Euros) per month, but it did not appear in the
payslip and nobody was aware that they were paying it. In two of the three with
an officially organised trade union, they knew that the company paid an
important amount to the trade union (they thought it was 2% of the payroll in
one factory, while in another they mentioned a monthly total with a fair amount
of zeros, although they had doubts about the exact amount).
8.- China’s official
trade unions, ACTU, their relationship with the GFA and with global trade union
action with a view to its monitoring, for the defence of decent work in supply
chains
Isidor Boix’s trip in
2015[1], with a visit to factories
in Hangzhou and then passing through Beijing for an official meeting with the
ACFTU management, seemed to indicate a new period in the relationship between
global trade unionism and China’s official trade unionism, including the
latter’s approach to the Framework Agreements and their possible interest in
global trade union action in defence of decent work in our world. We therefore
sent them the trade union report of the aforementioned trip as well as those of
previous trips. And we told them that there would be another visit in 2016 in
the Guangzhou area in spring; we then asked them when it would suit them best,
in order to coordinate with them and then visit Beijing with a view to what
they had proposed in 2015.
However, there was no reply to our initial
messages, neither as a comment to the reports we sent nor with regard to the
notification of the project for 2016; neither did they reply to a second
message reminding them about the matter two months later. We had therefore
given up on the idea of visiting Beijing, when we received a strange proposal
regarding possible joint work and a meeting to specify such. Nothing to do with
the subject, but it came from the same person that led the ACFTU delegation in
the 2015 meeting. We therefore modified our itinerary and told them a month in
advance when we would be in Beijing, so that they could arrange an interview
and, perhaps, other activities. And again silence, until the day before our
flight from Guangzhou to Beijing, when they told us that, unfortunately, there
would be nobody in Beijing to meet with us.
The
anecdotes from 2013 and 2015, as well as this one from 2016, basically
underline the fact that China does not formally have trade unions and, unlike
Vietnam for example, the official trade union structure does not feature
attitudes and interests coinciding with what could be regarded as the
individual and collective ones of the country’s working class. The GFA with
Inditex (as well as Mango’s CSR) has provided us with an interesting look at
working conditions in an important sample of the country’s garment and footwear
industry, as well as the reality of China’s official trade unionism.
What
we have seen up to now confirms what we have detected since our first trip to
China in 2006, i.e. the lack of effective channels in order to express the
interests of China’s important (due to its number, but also to its history)
working class. This situation undoubtedly generates elements of instability
whose future development is, at least for us, unforeseeable. However, we are
convinced that at some time a new trade unionism will arise, although only a
few visible expressions of such have taken place to date.”
2.- Vietnam
From
the December 2016 Report:
“....
3.- Trade unions in Vietnamese
factories
The
trade union organisation and activity that we observed in the visited factories
did not differ substantially from what we saw in previous visits. In this
regard, during our visit in 2015, we were able to talk at length (and to
coincide in the detected problems) with the management of the country’s General
Confederation of Labour (VGCL), particularly in relation to working conditions
(overtime) and trade union representation in the factories (a fair number of
business managers occupy posts of trade union management), as well as the
scarce relevance of the current agreements, both those considered “company
agreements” and the sectorial agreement in the textile-garment industry. We
observed the following main elements on this occasion:
·
Declared union
membership ranges from 80 to 100 % of the workforce, in relation to which we
have to take into account the formal freedom of unionisation as regards
becoming a member or not. However, we came across one worker who said that she
was not a union member because she was not interested in the matter, but her
payslip included a deduction for union dues. On the other hand, an absurd
situation still exists in which union membership is not allowed during the
trial period, which is compounded by the duration of such and the possible
volume of the workforce that is affected.
·
Individual dues
ranged from 0.60 to 1.40 euros per month in 3 of the factories, and amounted to
3 euros every 3 months in another. In one factory (the latter one), they are
payed directly by workers to the production line’s union representative; in the
other 3, dues are deducted from the salary.
· In addition to
individual union dues, companies pay the trade union 2% of the payroll, which
evidently accounts for the substantial part of trade union finances.
· Trade union funds are
divided between territorial trade union structures and trade union (welfare)
activities in the company. The distribution between both items seems to be
60-40, or 40-60, but it was difficult to receive specific figures from the
company trade union leaders that we interviewed.
·
The election of the
company trade union management is governed by complicated procedures and
occasionally by a reduced electoral body, whose explanation does not really
coincide among the different companies (on one occasion, it took us almost an
hour to specify it to some extent). It can be summarised by 3 electoral
procedures: one for electing the candidates, another for electing those who
then vote, from among these, for the company trade union management and a third
procedure for carrying out this election. In all of them, we detected an
indirect, and sometimes direct, influence from the company management. However,
it is worth mentioning here what we observed in other visits, namely a feeling
of class among company trade union representatives; although this has probably
not yet become generalised, it is now possible in the current circumstances and
is an important point to be taken into account for the development of real
trade unionism in the future.
· Such a complex
procedure (most of the workers we interviewed were unaware of or did not
remember all the details of it) almost always results (as was the case in all
the companies we visited on this occasion) in the posts of company trade union
President and Vice-President being occupied by business managers (production
manager, factory manager, personnel manager, …). In the meeting to establish
the National Trade Union Network of Inditex suppliers we saw, however, that
this negative reality does not affect all companies, and the persons that best
represented their work colleagues played an essential role, regardless of their
proportion in the meeting itself.
·
Some of the business
managers that were also (formally) trade union leaders, tried to justify this
irregularity by highlighting the advantage of “knowing well” both sides of the
interests at stake. They almost reached the point of justifying this strange
negotiation with themselves in order to settle inevitable labour tensions.
·
Trade union activity
in the factories is mainly centred on welfare (economic aid, care for the sick,
with a paternalistic view of such activity –“looking after the workers”–, …),
some leisure activities, anniversary presents, … In a few cases, they
insinuated that they also speak about salaries and working conditions, apart
from the quality of the food or excessive working temperatures.
·
In all the factories,
the business management claimed to have a collective agreement, although some
workers were not aware of it and most of them could not explain how it affected
them. On the other hand, this is understandable in view of the limited effect
of such “agreements” on the workers’ actual working conditions and salary.
·
The “negotiation”
procedure involved, in one of the companies, the trade union representatives
obtaining the workers’ opinions beforehand; in other cases, it had to do with a
direct proposal from the personnel department that was submitted to the company
trade union for its consideration. There may be some prior conversations
between the business and trade union managements, with the confusion resulting
from their make-up. The business proposal is formally presented to a trade
union “Congress” that is entitled to reject it, but all the companies told us
that this has never happened. In one company, the final business proposal was
signed by the workers (“all of them,” we were told) as an expression of consent.
·
These “agreements”
incorporate the main legal regulations regarding labour relations and add some
company particularities, such as the wage scale (the bonuses to be added to the
legal minimum), but without specifying their amounts. These are decided
annually by the business management, without any formal negotiation.
·
As an example of the limited
effect of the so-called agreements, one worker that had been in the company for
11 years claimed that she did not even know what an “agreement” was.
·
In one company, a
document on the notice board caught our attention regarding an agreement
between the company trade union and the factory’s “youth” organisation on
productivity objectives. We were told that these were “communist youths” that
make up approximately 15% of the workforce, but that the indicated objectives
had not yet been reached. This could, however, indicate a line of political
initiative (of disputed interest, particularly due to the lack of trade union
initiative) aimed at influencing matters regarding the necessary improvement of
work organisation, productivity. These are matters that, with a view to
appropriate labour relations, and probably with a view to their efficiency,
cannot be limited to the workers’ subjective stimulus.
·
On this occasion, all
the factories claimed that they had never had any labour disputes. In one,
however, they told us about a strike in 2012 when the workers felt that they
were not being paid properly for overtime. Seemingly, they were convinced by
being presented with information indicating that the minimum wage in their
region was lower than that of the company with which they had compared
themselves. However, this situation highlights a series of relations among
workers of different companies that are beyond the formal official mechanisms.
In another factory they told us about a half-day strike, which was generalised
in their area, as a protest over “Chinese aggression” against disputed islands in
the South China Sea.
.....
5.- An interesting article
Coinciding
with our stay in Vietnam, the official English-language newspaper “Vietnam
News” of November 5 published an article entitled “Measures needed to prevent
labour disputes.” Some paragraphs are quoted below:
“Labour
disputes kept increasing over the past years and became more complicated,
demonstrating a need for adjustment of… relations between workers and
employers… The country recorded 3,146 strikes… 132 strikes were reported during
the first six months of this year… A representative of the ministry’s
Department of Legal Affairs said that disputes… are inevitable because of
on-going changes in the labour market.”
He
then indicated the following, after referring to several disputes and strikes
in relation to “salary, working hours, and food safety and hygiene”:
“But
the strikes that resulted did not follow legal processes… This shows that some
legal regulations were ineffective or not effective enough… The law should be
adjusted to increase mechanisms related to dialogues and negotiations between
employees and employers…”
The
article, however, did not deal with what is probably the main problem: how to
carry out such “dialogues and negotiations” and with which organisations
representing the interests at stake.”
Surely can be objected
that the main problem is certainly not the regulation of the strike, but also
the insufficient exercise of freedom of association for trade union
representatives to be effectively, which would rather help other regulation of
the unión, Right of association and the election of trade union leaders from
the workplace.
Another
reference of interest for the monitoring of the evolution of Vietnamese trade
unionism is the creation of the first Inditex Suppliers' Trade Union Network in
Vietnam. The first in the country, and the first in the world, whose
information is in:
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario