RUDOLF TRAUB-MERZ| WAGE STRIKES AND TRADE UNIONS IN CHINA 1. Introduction Since the outbreak of numerous wage strikes which commenced in Guangdong province in April 2010, be­fore spreading to other regions, there has been a heated debate on these events in China. 1 Many regard the walk­outs as a one-off; 2 others perceive the country’s wage policy as standing at a crossroads, taking the view that the era in which low wages are paid in Chinese factories will soon be at an end. The wage debate 3 is intertwined with many other socio-political and socio-economic discourses and current reform efforts. This includes demands for more equitable income distribution, an end to social discrimination via household registration( hukou), the rapid construction of a welfare state and, above all, a strategy to redirect the Chinese accumulation model from its export orientation to domestic market devel­opment. Wage strikes, however, call into question the legitimacy and functionality of the official trade unions. The walk­outs and ensuing wage negotiations were organised by migrant workers, 4 without trade union support. If 1. See, for example, China Labour Bulletin(2011) and CLNT(2010). See also the two Workshops in which the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung was involved as co-organiser:»Labour Dispute Resolution«(Nanjing, 8-9 April 2011) and»The Strike Wave and the Emergence of Collective Bargaining Me­chanisms: the South China Experience«(Guangzhou, 10-12 April 2011). 2. In the crisis year of 2009 the government had recommended that there be no wage increases. To that extent, we can talk of a need for a one-off catch-up. 3. There are no detailed data on wages and wage rates in China which could be used to establish accurate trends. The extent to which published minimum wages and average wages are adhered to, as well as which wage groups are included in the calculation of the average wage, remain unclear. The following can serve as indicators: the share of total wages in GNP fell from 53 per cent in 1995 to 40 per cent in 2007. The increase in urban average wages initially lagged behind GNP development, but in re­cent years it has increased at an above average rate. Statutory minimum wages fell from 44 per cent of average wages in 1995 to 28 per cent in 2006, which amounts to a strong increase in the wage spread. Migrant workers receive around 50-70 per cent of the wages of urban workers for the same work. See Schucher and Kruger(2010), Dun and Pan(2009) and OECD-Report(2010: Chapter 6). 4.»Migrant workers« are not to be equated with seasonal workers. Rather they are employees who do not have a permanent right of res­idence( hukou) where they are employed. Since social insurance is admin­istered by local government and the municipalities hitherto have not set up a properly functioning accounting system dealing with existing insurance entitlements, migrant workers in practice are without social insurance(see, for example, OECD, 2010: Chapter 6). Data on the number of migrant workers range between 170 million to a maximum of 280 million. According to the 2010 census there are 261.4 million»migrants«, predominantly»rural migrants«(Shanghai Daily, 20.4.2011). They can be divided almost equally into urban and rural places of work. strikes and wage negotiations continue to be conduc­ted with-out the participation of the All Chinese Fede­ration of Trade Unions(ACFTU) the Communist Party of China(CPC) could question the purpose of the official trade unions. Accordingly, the trade union federation is pushing initiatives which would give it a leading role in wage negotiations. In this article we shall look at the processes set in mo­tion by the strike wave of 2010. Perspectives can be discerned in the contradictory interaction of various lev­els which are significant for future wage policy, the shaping of industrial relations and the role of the trade unions. 2. Wage Strikes: A New Development Since centralised labour allocation has been replaced by labour markets in China and private sector em­ployers have come to prevail, labour conflicts can best be understood in terms of the difference bet­ween disputes of rights and disputes of interests. 5 Besides the demonstrations within the framework of the reform of state-owned enterprises workers’ protests until recently were concentrated in the ma­nufacturing plants in the export zones on the east coast, in which predominantly migrant workers are employed. Although there are no statistics on the basis of which their course can be traced in detail  6 the literature is in agreement: labour relations in these factories were characterised by serious violations of la­bour law, in particular wage payments below the legal minimum, non-payment of overtime hours and with­holding of wages, often for periods of several months. Their significance for the overall economy is discernible when one con ­siders them in relation to the total labour force, which numbered 798 million in 2009. The urban sector numbered 320 million, with 311 mil­lion employees and 9 million unemployed. 469 million employees are as­cribed to the rural sector, of which 156 million are wage workers in mu­nicipal establishments(so-called»Township and Village Enterprises«) and 31 million in private establishments. The number of peasant households is not cited explicitly(China Statistical Yearbook 2010: 117). 5. The demonstrations in 2002, in which laid-off workers called for com­pensation payments and social support in the wake of the reform of the state-owned sector of the economy(1995-2002), were attributable to the breach of the socialist social contract, which was not enshrined in legislation. They cut across the division into disputes of rights and dis­putes of interests, however, and are not considered here(see Lee 2007). 6. The statistics do not include any wage strikes and it is not discernible what problems underlie the»disputes on labour remuneration«. Over­all, the number of registered labour conflicts increased from 48,121 to 684,379 between 1996 and 2009. In 2009, the number of cases dealt with by courts was 320,000(China Labour Statistical Yearbook 2010: 417). 2