Jenny Chan publishes analysis of the impacts of China's Labor Contract Law (May 2009)

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In Jenny Wai-ling Chan's  article, "Meaningful Progress or Illusory Reform?  Analyzing China's Labor Contract Law" (New Labor Forum, May 2009), she discusses the consequences of the Labor Contract Law (LCL) one year after its implementation in China on January 1, 2008.  The LCL provides many protections for workers, though not the right to strike.  While it has had little practical consequences for workers lives, Chan argues, there has been some gradual improvements in the legal reform process.  Significant social unrest  in recent years can be attributed in some part to the inability of workers to make claims based on legal reforms.  Because local judges lack autonomy to make legal decisions, especially when powerful interests are threatened and because they are subject to interference from higher courts, as Chan says, "Under these circumstances, workers' rights often end at the courtroom door."  That is, despite legal reforms which gives workers a voice with which to make claims regarding their rights, the legal system itself undermines the enforcement of law.  Chan's article provides on-the-ground analysis of the impacts of the LCL, and her references include many articles detailing specific issues at companies such as Nike and campaigns lead by the organization SACOM. 

For an expansive treatment of similar issues related to workers different strategies in contemporary China as they make claims on the state and through the law, one could read Ching-Kwan Lee's  2007 book, Against the Law: Labor Protests in China's Rustbelt and Sunbelt (University of California Press).

Table Of Contents

Contents   From the Editorial Team   The Grim State of the States: The Fiscal Crisis Facing State and Local Governments By James Heintz Without massive federal aid, austerity threatens ruin.   Sam's World: How the Obama Era Will Transform Wal-Mart By Nelson Lichtenstein Can the world's largest corporation resist the winds of change?   The Wreckage of U.S. Auto: Who Was Behind the Wheel? By Sanford M. Jacoby Short-sighted management is mostly to blame for the collapse of the American auto industry.   The Goldless Years: How to Save the Nation's Retirees from Bankruptcy By Teresa Ghilarducci The solution to retirement security lies in correcting the costly failure of 401(k) plans.   Meaningful Progress or Illusory Reform?: Analyzing China’s Labor Contract Law By Jenny Chan The latest Chinese labor law looks good on paper, but will it make a difference?   Sending Love and Money: A Photo Essay on Mexican Migration By Debbie Nathan                                             The (Mis)Education of America   The Achievement Gap: Public Education in Crisis By Pedro A. Noguera If “No Child Left Behind” failed, what will work better?   Where Crisis Meets Opportunity: A Response to Noguera By Randi Weingarten   Educating the Hierarchs: College and Class in America By Peter Sacks Higher education is closing its doors to working people of all colors.   Teaching Labor’s Untold Story: How to Get Labor Back into the Classroom By Rob Linné, Adrienne Andi Sosin, and Leigh Benin Some educators and labor activists are challenging labor-unfriendly school curricula.   Economic Prospects By Robert Pollin   Caught in the Web By Kim Phillips-Fein Labor news, views, and resources online.     Books and the Arts   The Working Poor Reviewed by Roberta Rehner Iversen The Missing Class: Portraits of the Near Poor in America By Katherine S. Newman and Victor Tan Chen A Measure of Fairness: The Economics of Living Wages and Minimum Wages in the United States By Robert Pollin, Mark Brenner, Jeannette Wicks-Lim, and Stephanie Luce   A Harsh Lesson Reviewed by Dan Clawson The Global Assault on Teaching, Teachers, and Their Unions: Stories for Resistance Edited by Mary Compton and Lois Weiner   Putting Labor on the Map Reviewed by Don Mitchell Spaces of Work: Global Capitalism and Geographies of Labour By Noel Castree, Neil M. Coe, Kevin Ward, and Michael Samers Our Daily Bread: Wages, Workers, and the Political Economy of the American West By Geoff Mann Disposable Women and Other Myths of Global Capitalism By Melissa W. Wright   Documenting Disaster Reviewed by James V. Catano Trouble the Water  Directed and Produced by Tia Lessin and Carl Deal     Out of the Mainstream: Books and Films You May Have Missed By Matt Witt   Poetry   Letter to the Editors   About Our Contributors