ABSTRACT
This chapter makes three main arguments. Firstly, to improve the conditions of Chinese workers, one needs to expand their focus from the five core rights to include range of other labor rights. Secondly, Labor rights, including the non-core rights, should be seen as human rights and should be fully integrated into the international human-rights discourses and practices. Thirdly, non-governmental organization (NGOs) should apply pressure on the Chinese government, which professes to champion the cause of labor, to persuade it to play a more positive role in regulating labor conditions. International organizations have almost completely focused on two main core rights, of freedom of association and of collective bargaining. The anti-sweatshop campaign prompted President Clinton to commission the establishment of an Apparel Industry Partnership in which multinationals and their critics negotiated the terms for the formation of a Fair Labor Association (FLA). Trade-union organizations hold the five core labor rights sacrosanct.
