FRIEDRICH-EBERT-STIFTUNG – CHINA’S INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT COOPERATION TO UNIONISING IN ­CHINESE COMPANIES From the 2010s on, BWI started to organise workers em­ployed in Chinese multinational companies(MNCs) and their subcontractors. 197 The first country where a union managed to engage Chinese MNCs was Ghana. In 2011, the BWI affiliate Ghana Construction Union negotiated collec­tive bargaining agreements(CBAs) with China Railway Wu­ju Corporation 198 and Sinohydro Corporation. 199 By 2019, BWI affiliates had organised 81,000 workers in Sub-Saharan Africa, signed 62 CBAs, and organised 66 strikes. 200 At this time, 22 unions were active in 18 coun­tries; a total of 217 companies were organised, including small and big Chinese MNCs and private Chinese compa­nies. Despite the successes of the BWI on this front, working with Chinese companies remains a major challenge for trade unions. Most Chinese companies active in African infrastructure development are SOEs, meaning that their operations are supported by the Chinese government and that they have direct access to local government. What plays a bigger role, though, is that Chinese companies have little experience with independent trade unionism. Typically, when working with MNCs, the BWI can draw on the support and experience of its affiliate in the home country of the MNC. 201 This is not the case with China, as there are no international framework agreements. Addi­tionally, organising is made difficult by the fact that work­ers are often employed on short-term contracts, making member retention nearly impossible and making organis­ing in Chinese MNCs a“monthly activity”. 202 This makes it difficult for unions to address work deficits prevalent in Chinese MNCs. Chinese managers who have little experience in dealing with trade unions are often surprised that workers turn to unions or go on strike over what they perceive as seemingly trivial issues, such as food. 203 Many try to avoid dealing with trade unions by not allowing employees to join unions. 204 Moreover, workers who are paid daily and don’t have formal contracts cannot join trade unions, as unions do not accept casual workers as members. 205 Yet, preventing workers from unionising produces the opposite effect from what Chinese companies want to achieve: Unprotected by unions, work­ers resort to strikes as the only means to improve working conditions and increase wages. 206 Trade unions do exist in China, but their function is differ­ent from most other countries. A product of Chinese Com­munist history, Chinese unions are formed top-to-bottom. The only legally allowed trade union organisation in China is the All-China Federation of Trade Unions(ACFTU); all un­ions in China are required to register with it. Following the Soviet model, the ACFTU functions as a“transmission belt” between the CCP and the workers. It would not be classi­fied as a trade union elsewhere but is instead a part of the party bureaucracy that represents the will of the Chinese central leadership, not the workers’ aspiration. It is, moreo­ver, an instrument to curb workers’ dissent. Nevertheless, after the CCP launched a trade union reform initiative 207 in 2015 to address the weak reputation of the ACFTU among Chinese workers, and local trade unions in China have made new efforts to help workers defend their individual rights. However, most unions have little understanding of collective bargaining and view serving the party as their core task. 208 China has not ratified International Labour Organisation (ILO) conventions 87(Freedom of Association and Protec­tion of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948) and 98 (Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949). It ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights(ICESCR) in 1997 with reservations on the provision on freedom of association. Freedom of as­sociation is written into the Chinese Constitution, with the clause on the right to strike taken away by amendment in 1982. However, the CCP and the ACFTU have always made it clear that China will walk its own way of Socialism with Chinese characteristics and not copy“western-styled de­mocracy and trade unionism.” 209 197 WI/FES TUCC(2016). Chinese MNCs in Africa. Development Bur­den on Labour: Political, Socio-Economic and Cultural Perspectives. https://tucc.fes.de/fileadmin/user_upload/documents/Chinese­MNCs-Doc-2016_V3_AUG_PARKTONIAN_ENGLISH.pdf 198 translated as the“China Railway No. 5 Engineering Group”, this is a subsidiary of the SOE China Railway Group Ltd.( 中国中铁股份有 限公司 ) headquartered in Guiyang. 199 OE, headquartered in Beijing. 200 Interview with a BWI representative. 201 BWI/FES TUCC(2016). Chinese MNCs in Africa, 14. 202 euteberg, S.(2019). Chinese Multinational Corporations in Africa: What’s the Trade Union Response? LRS Labour Research Service, 7 August. https://www.lrs.org.za/2019/08/07/chinese-multination­al-corporations-in-africa-whats-the-trade-union-response/ 203 U.& Wang, Y.(2017). African Politics Meets Chinese Engineers: The Chinese-Built Standard Gauge Railway Project in Kenya and East Africa. SAIS-CARI Working Paper. https://static1. squarespace.com/static/5652847de4b033f56d2bdc29/t/594d739f3 e00bed37482d4fe/1498248096443/SGR+v4.pdf 204 A.-S.& Kotsadam, A.(2018). Racing to the Bottom? Chi­nese Development Projects and Trade Union Involvement in Africa. World Development 106, 284–98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.world­dev.2018.02.003 205 O.G.(2023). Assessment Of The State Of Trade Unions in Kenya. Africa Labour, Research and Education Institute, Lome. https:// alrei.org/education/assessment-of-the-state-of-trade-unions-in-ken­ya-by-owidhi-george-otieno 206 hao(2020). How to Establish Labor Protection Standards for Kenyan Local Workers in Chinese MNCs. 207 reform’s objectives were to“eliminat[e] four impediments” to the ACFTU’s work(regimentation, bureaucratisation, elitism, and frivo­lousness) and“increase[e] three positive attributes” of the organisa­tion(political consciousness, progressiveness, and popular legitimacy). 208 olding China’s Trade Unions to Account.(2020). China Labour Bulle­tin, 17 February. https://clb.org.hk/node/15104 209 WI/FES TUCC(2017). Chinese MNCs in Africa, 6. https://tucc.fes. de/fileadmin/user_upload/documents/Chinese_MNCs_Doc_2017_ OCT_DURBAN_ENGLISH_FES.pdf 38