U.S. Corporations Lobby Against New Protections for Chinese Workers
Labor rights advocates say U.S. multinational corporations have aggressively lobbied to weaken key provisions in a new Chinese law that would expand rights and protections for Chinese workers.
"U.S. corporations have used their considerable power and influence there to weaken the labor laws that are being proposed," said Ellen David Friedman, a U.S. labor organizer who's worked with developing trade union groups in China. "They are in essence acknowledging that what they have liked about doing business in China is the very, very cheap labor and the low level of enforcement."
The Chinese government is drafting a new labor law, expected to be finalized in the next few weeks, in response to increasing worker unrest over low and unpaid wages and poor working conditions. Labor rights advocates say the new law will provide Chinese workers with minimal protections that are commonplace in developed countries, including enforceable contracts, the role of unions to negotiate on behalf of employees and severance payments.
When the Chinese government announced the new labor law last year, American corporate trade groups were quick to object to many of the law's provisions.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai known as AmCham said the law was "a step backwards" and laid out what it called "fundamental defects" in the law in a 42-page document submitted to the Chinese government. The group argued that current Chinese labor law was sufficient for protecting Chinese workers if the laws were properly enforced.
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