ABSTRACT
As can be seen from the preceding chapter, important changes have taken place in HRM and ER practices of Chinese enterprises. Running parallel to these changes have been significant changes to legislation covering trade unions and to trade unions themselves. It is often convenient to view Chinese trade unions as subservient to the party interests. What we have seen over the past two decades of reform, however, is a growing independence and reshaping of the activities and role of trade unions as the relationships between management and trade unions mature and take on, at least superficially, a more Western character. This chapter commences with an overview of the background and current structure of trade unions. The next section then explores worker representation at the enterprise and is followed by a section that explores union-management relations. The final substantive section explores differences in unionization and union activity in terms of industry, enterprise age and size, type of enterprise and geographic location.
