ABSTRACT
In the Asian foreign-invested firms in China, confrontations between management and workers have been increasing at a dramatic rate. To introduce collective bargaining in China implies a willingness to adopt a fundamental feature of the industrial-relations systems of the developed capitalist democratic countries. Management-worker relations in these joint ventures generally are not adversarial. Rather, the fault line is usually drawn between the foreigners and the Chinese. The trade union branch headed by the de facto Party leaders together with the Chinese manager form a united front. The economic success story of the Chinese diaspora in Southeast Asia is well known and has been a very popular subject of study in a number of academic fields. The number of labor disputes recorded in these southern regions is higher than in other parts of the country. The trade union is a weak bureaucracy compared to others, in particular those which play key roles in economic planning and development.
