The revitalisation of Chinese unions' role of 'transmission belt' in the private sector : evidence from professional union leader practice in C city

In a planned economy, Chinese unions were officially functioned as a two-way 'transmission belt', which involved implementing the will of the State from top down and representing the demand of workers from bottom up. However, China's market reform has witnessed the rupture of Chinese unions' transmission belt role by virtue of the decline of the SOEs and the rise of private employers. Therefore, in order to retain an authoritarian socialist principle without disturbing the economic growth, unions have to rebuild their role of transmission belt at grassroots level in the private sector. Empirically, there has already been some evidence by some regional offices of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) to form united grassroots unions independently from individual employers in C city. Remarkably, this attempt has distinct parallels with various models of union revitalisation that have been documented in many other countries. The paper aims to use qualitative case study evidence in C city to indicate how this practice helps unions revitalise their transmission belt role in private sector. The research finds that, although the practice has built up a new form of grassroots union as new transmission belt, such belt is still limited both in representing workers in labour disputes.