UID:
kobvindex_DGP1641975784
ISSN:
0156-7365
Content:
This article examines the role of the official Chinese trade union in providing legal aid to workers involved in labor disputes. It shows that unlike ordinary legal professionals, the union is more than a "third party" that is called upon to intervene in a particular dispute. By using workers' private cases to advocate labor rights in workplaces and to call for more effective law enforcement, the union has turned those individual legal contentions into a form of union action, and therefore made itself relevant in situations of industrial conflict. This constitutes part of a labor struggle in a political system that rules out autonomous, independently organized labor movements. On the other hand, the legal aid provided by the trade union is essentially reactive rather than proactive, aiming to correct the infringements of rights already stipulated in law, rather than pursuing new rights claims that have not been formally recognized by China's political leadership. The union's assistance in law suits seeks to ensure the execution of existing legal codes that have often been ignored, rather than to use the law to push for social and political change. (China J/DÜI)
In:
The China journal, Chicago, Ill : University of Chicago Press, 1995, (2004), 52, Seite 27-48, 0156-7365
Language:
English
