Industrial relations in China

Bill Taylor et al, Edward Elgar, 288 pages, hardback, £40.00

In the last 25 years China has been transformed from a command economy into one largely regulated by market mechanisms. This book analyses the impact of these changes on industrial relations.

Before 1978 the state owned most industry, and the ACFTU union federation functioned as "a quasi-government organ".

This all changed after 1978 with what the authors call a "new managerial despotism", creating a hybrid form of management-labour relations.

The ACFTU still plays a minimal role for workers in workplace disputes, and is still seen as part of the state. In the new enterprises orientated to the global market, no union representation of any kind exists at all.

However, the authors suggest that a new class of waged workers in these enterprises, many from the countryside, coupled with a new business class, will eventually generate clashes as their interests collide.