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Discussion on trade union membership in the USA, Australia, and China
The trade unions demonstrate different directions and tendencies in the USA and Australia when compared to those in China. The former shows a steady decline which can be traced back several decades, while the latter steadily improves and strengthens over time. The main reason for this is a somewhat different role these entities play in different countries.
In the US the trade unions saw rapid development from 1930 to the sixties, where they have started to decline. This process is observable to this day and is expected to persist in the nearest future. According to the general understanding, there are two major reasons for the decline. First, the 1960s saw the tendency of the legal proceedings to be resolved in favour of the employers rather than workers.
This has discouraged the unionists from legal actions in case of unfair treatment. Second, many organizations have gained sufficient political power to influence the legislative change process. This allowed for the formation of the legal environment favourable to the anti-union tactics. While on several occasions attempts were made to prohibit union-busting, the overall picture remained relatively unchanged throughout recent decades. As a result, the union sector declined while the non-union one is on the rise.
It is important to note that while the percentage of unionized workforce nowadays is relatively similar to the one in the 1930s, the working conditions differ tremendously. In the thirties, the individual employee rights were in their infancy and thus the workers were virtually unprotected. This has led to the natural countermeasure of forming unions to secure employee rights.
However, since the introduction of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 and the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, the legislation regulating the employment policies began its development towards more favourable conditions. As a result, currently, the employees are sufficiently protected regardless of being part of the trade union. Thus, the unionized segment, which was always viewed as a drawback by the employers, has partially lost its significance as a means of protecting the employee but has remained a repelling factor for the company.
The unionized labour costs more, which is recognized as the reason for the demise of some firms. Unions decrease the competitive advantage of the firm. Finally, the public image of the trade unions gradually becomes unfavourable, making them an even less attractive option (Hodder, 2014). As a result, the unions present more challenges and difficulties than advantages, especially combined with the fact that many benefits, such as healthcare, pensions, and ethical safeguards, which were traditionally only achievable through the union membership are now granted by the federal and state policies and regulations (Bach & Bordogna, 2013).
These factors are largely responsible for a similar phenomenon in Australia. However, the distribution of the influences is somewhat different. The legislative factor has been less prominently contributing to the matter, while the tendency of favouring part-time jobs and self-employment methods coupled with the decline of the traditional labour values have a more visible influence on the process (Williams & Lansky, 2013).
Besides, the Australian employers have been historically less prone to anti-union tactics, which has resulted in a more successful union-busting in the late nineties (Buchanan, Oliver, & Briggs, 2014). It can be thus safely concluded that the reasons for the decline of unions in Australia are largely shared with those of the USA with some exceptions.
In China, on the other hand, the trade union is a visibly different entity. First, the state has approved the existence of only one union since 1949: the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), which is currently the only official organization of such kind in China. While some traits of ACFTU suggest that it can be viewed as a confederation of unions, it is officially declared as a single entity. The main difference from similar organizations in the US and Australia is its dependence on the state.
Before the 1970s, the union was largely a state-based organization, with the majority of its governing body comprised of the Communist party members. This essentially made it an official representative of the government rather than a collaborative effort directed at safeguarding the rights of employees. Nowadays, the Chinese economy becomes gradually more market-oriented, which suggests that at least to some degree the union is expected to be transformed to resemble its Western counterpart. Nevertheless, the lack of transparency makes it difficult to assess the actual state of affairs.
It is likely, however, that the fact that ACFTU represents the interests of the state rather than the rights of individuals is largely responsible for its proliferation (Wu & Sun, 2014). Other reasons for the growing popularity of the unionized segment include the emergence of labour contract law, which leads to the collectivization of the labour relations, commonly considered as contributing to the need for unions (Rowley & Michie, 2014).
In other words, the strong position of the ACFTU can be mostly attributed to its role as a government-controlled entity and the resulting support from the state, but also at least to some degree by the trends of change in the economy towards Western standards, although the percentages of these factors are still unclear.
The ways international agencies influence national system of employment relations
The efforts to establish unified trade policies throughout the world have been made several times in the twentieth century. However, while introducing several visible benefits, these attempts have invariably influenced the economies of developing countries as well as the advanced industrial countries such as the US. For this reason, the implementation of international agencies have been met with dissatisfaction and, in some cases, resisted to the point where the establishment was eventually disrupted.
The main point of conflict in two of the most prominent examples of such agencies, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO), was the inclusion of the social clause, which presumably created the possibility of disadvantage for some of the members who would decide (or comply with) the inclusion in the organization. Also, the social clause would create unfair conditions for countries with less developed economies.
A good example of an undesirable influence on the national system of employment relations was the attempt to ratify the International Trade Organization (ITO). Once it became clear that the proposed regulations included a close connection between the trade regulations and labour standards, the United States immediately denied ratification, as such conditions would mean the enforcement of trade reprisals as soon as the breach of labour standards would be detected.
The established policies of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) instead permitted the parties to issue the restrictive and punitive actions as they determined necessary. Since then, the ILO has produced several international recommendations, which, unlike the previous example, do not significantly alter the national employment relation policies – instead, they become bounding by voluntary ratification.
A more recent social clause introduced by the WTO is a different matter. It has the mechanisms of enforcing its decisions on the international level. For the economy of the US, this has little impact, as the social rights movement is fairly developed in the country (Wang & Soule, 2012) and thus no serious effort would be required to comply with the clause. On the other hand, in the countries with developing industries such as Australia, the introduction of the social clause would require sufficient reworking of policies and, in some cases, demand the limitations of currently established practices.
Essentially, this would mean that the regulations which come with the clause would hamper the national industries and, by extension, create the unfavourable conditions in Australia while posing no noticeable threat to the disruption of operations in the US. Australia demonstrates another important aspect of the influence of international regulations affecting the national system of employment relations. Unlike the US, Australia lacks a constitutionally entrenched bill of rights (Gallop, 2014).
As a result, the rights of employees are secured by various statutes and common law. Arguably, the substitution of this complex system of disparate and sometimes conflicting regulations with a streamlined and unified system such as ILO may benefit the workforce in a way similar to how the individual employee rights currently in place in the US streamline the relations between the parties and eliminate the need for additional entities such as trade unions. Thus, in a way, the implementation of ILO in Australia may to some degree improve the legal side of the ER, thus amending to a certain level the adverse effect of the social clause mentioned above.
Finally, the example of China needs to be considered separately. China is associated with having poor labour conditions and little to no social protection for employees (Barrientos, Mayer, Pickles, & Posthuma, 2011). Besides, the economy of the country, while already recognized as formidable on the global scale, have just recently been considered in its infancy (Lu & Gao, 2011).
Thus, it is tempting to assume that China is an extreme case of a developing country, with all the implications such as the disadvantages created by the relatively high social standards. While this may be the case, some scholars point to the fact that the direction currently taken by the Chinese industries denote visible improvement (Casadio, 2015). In this regard, the introduction of the social clause, while still posing certain threats to the traditional employment practices, may speed up the necessary changes which are already underway on the national level.
Besides, as was mentioned earlier, the trade union of China exhibits some signs of faulty functioning. At least some of the Chinese experts find the current collective bargaining system of China ineffective in comparison to the one established by the ILO (Chan, 2014). In this sense, the direct beneficial influence of international regulations is especially prominent.
To conclude, three major types of the influence of international policies on national ER practices can be outlined. For the countries which attempt to reach the newly set standards, such regulations can serve their initial intended purpose: improving the employment practices and aiding the companies in creating a more fair and beneficial working environment, thus improving the profitability.
For the developed countries such as the US, the influence can be minor unless noticeable mandatory changes are made, especially of punitive nature. Finally, in some cases, such as that of Australia, the conditions may be introduced which would noticeably limit their competitive capabilities, although no significant violations of employee rights were observed initially.
References
Bach, S., & Bordogna, L. (2013). Reframing public service employment relations: The impact of economic crisis and the new EU economic governance. European Journal of Industrial Relations, 19(4), 279-294.
Barrientos, S., Mayer, F., Pickles, J., & Posthuma, A. (2011). Decent work in global production networks: Framing the policy debate. International Labour Review, 150(3), 297-317.
Buchanan, J., Oliver, D., & Briggs, C. (2014). Solidarity reconstructed: The impact of the Accord on relations within the Australian union movement. Journal of Industrial Relations, 56(2), 288-307.
Casadio, G. (2015). When China rules the world: the end of the Western world and the birth of a new global order. Asia Pacific Business Review, 21(2), 265-266.
Chan, C. (2014). The politics of labour legislation in southern China: How foreign chambers of commerce and government agencies influence collective bargaining laws. International Labour Review, 153(4), 587-607.
Gallop, G. (2014). A republican history of Australia. Labour History: A Journal of Labour and Social History, 107, 197-209.
Hodder, A. (2014). Organising young workers in the Public and Commercial Services union. Industrial Relations Journal, 45(2), 153-168.
Lu, M., & Gao, H. (2011). Labour market transition, income inequality and economic growth in China. International Labour Review, 150(1? 2), 101-126.
Rowley, C., & Michie, J. (2014). Differing forms of capital: setting the scene for mutuality and co-operation in the Asia Pacific Region. Asia Pacific Business Review, 20(3), 322-329.
Wang, D. J., & Soule, S. A. (2012). Social movement organizational collaboration: Networks of learning and the diffusion of protest tactics, 1960–1995. American Journal of Sociology, 117(6), 1674-1722.
Williams, C. C., & Lansky, M. (2013). Informal employment in developed and developing economies: Perspectives and policy responses. International Labour Review, 152(3-4), 355-380.
Wu, Q., & Sun, Z. (2014). Collective consultation under quota management: China’s government-led model of labour relations regulation. International Labour Review, 153(4), 609-633.
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