ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to provide an abbreviated profile on the Chinese trade unions and their work in order to shed light on how these workers’ organizations endeavour to address the nationwide problem of workers’ layoffs and unemployment on their agenda. Given the monolithic nature of the officially sanctioned labour movement in Mainland China, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) is the mass public organ heading and leading the Chinese trade unions as their union centre. Its key mission has been, inter alia, to harmonize with the state’s policy and labour’s need for better protection as exposed by the vicissitudes of ‘marketization’ and ‘de-socialization’.
