ABSTRACT
Hong Kong is a cosmopolitan and highly urbanized society. It is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading exponents of a laissez faire economy. The roles of trade unions in Hong Kong are similar to that of developed economies in many aspects, including bargaining for labour interest vis-à-vis employers, assisting workers in labour disputes, providing services to members, and participating in wider social issues. One unique characteristic of Hong Kong’s union movement is its close relationship with the political struggle in China for several decades. Though union density is not very low in Hong Kong, unions are traditionally deemed weak and feeble in terms of their influence in the workplace (England 1989; Turner et al. 1991; Levin and Chiu 1993; Chan and Snape 2000).
