ABSTRACT
Trade unions in the People’s Republic of China have traditionally been vertically organized, in keeping with Leninist ideology and Soviet ‘industrial’ principles of organization. The trade union’s role may be said to centre on ‘labour productivity, worker morale and welfare rather than the interpretation of national policy’. The role of the Party secretary in the enterprise remains central whatever the changing institutional arrangements, be they managerial or representative. Citizenship registration was thus anchored in its initial placing and labour mobility was minimal. Urban dwellers without hukou were non-persons. As state enterprises are made more economically responsible, the less productive ones are shedding labour, particularly on ‘pilot’ or ‘experimental’ sites selected to test the new enterprise contract responsibility schemes. As a lynch-pin of China’s human resources management system, the ‘iron rice-bowl’ employment policy had its roots in the early 1950s.
