ABSTRACT
The taxonomic scheme for this volume incorporates the ‘varieties of capitalism’ concept and its extended application to the labour and employment relations domain, which is the ‘varieties of unionism’ classification. However, in this chapter, we try to remedy the limitations of these two approaches when applied to Asian trade unions and labour movements. Drawing on Keith Thurley’s benchmark studies of thirty years ago, we adopt an alternative viewpoint, examining Asian unionism in terms of commonalities within the region as well as how unions vary between countries. The concept of ‘Asian unionism’ is complex, given the shifting configuration of the labour movements in many Asian states. An example of this complexity is the proliferation of ethnic groups and union types in the Asia-Pacific region, which often overlap with identities based on ethnic and national affiliations. This chapter argues that Asian unions owe their existence to performing certain functions, in a less structured (or mature) form than their Western counterparts, for the polity, society and economy of each nation. In order to understand their functions and rationale, unions and labour movements should be viewed in the context of the Asian environment, which entails three key contextual variables: the historical legacies of each nation, their cultural superstructure and the region’s geopolitics.
