A Comparative Study on the Collective Industrial Relations of Japanese-, Us-, and European-affiliated Companies in China

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The reform of employment systems in China has encouraged companies to promote the pay-for-performance-style personnel management and the mobility of the employees. Ultimately, they have led to the recent high-speed economic growth by bringing in vitalization of human resources and organizations. On the other hand, they have also induced "income difference" issues and increased labor disputes or strikes.Facing the situation mentioned above, Chinese government (Communist Party) revised "Trade Union Law" in 2001. They are keen on stabilizing industrial relations by the articles of mandatory setups of trade unions, promotion of equal consultation system, and enhancement of collective contracts. As a result, the numbers of basic-level trade unions and collective contracts have been increasing dramatically. And according to the questionnaire survey conducted by the author (Furusawa), it has been found that the Japanese-affiliated companies are responding to the new "Trade Union Law" more pos … More itively than their U.S.counterparts.However, we can point out the following challenges of the Japanese-affiliated companies.First, their industrial relations seem to have "given-from-the-government (party)" characteristics. For example, their collective contracts were signed due to the outside political intention, not the necessities of each company. And the proportion of companies which have the daily communication system between management and trade unions is relatively small. These represent contradictory facts against "macro-lever" prosperity of trade unions.Second, we can not find clear-cut differentiation of the positions between management and trade unions. In many cases, the chairmen of trade unions do not work full-time, which means the managers often serve concurrently as trade union chairmen.Third, trade unions do not function effectively enough to prevent labor disputes or strikes. And they do not seem to play active roles to solve such troubles.Finally, we have to attend to how trade unions are going to handle their "dual responsibilities". Less