The Chinese Worker after Socialism

Abstract

While millions in China have been advantaged by three decades of reform, impressive gains have also produced social dislocation. Groups that had been winners under socialism find themselves losers in the new order. Based on field research in nine cities across China, this fascinating study considers the fate of one such group - 35 million workers laid off from the state-owned sector. The book explains why these lay-offs occurred, how workers are coping with unemployment, what actions the state is taking to provide them with livelihoods and re-employment, and what happens when workers mobilize collectively to pursue redress of their substantial grievances. What happens to these people, the remnants of the socialist working class, will be critical in shaping post-socialist politics and society in China and beyond.

Chinese management practices in Kenya: toward a post-colonial critique

“…Instead, workers may receive red packet money, i.e. 'hongbao' (红包) for good performance, particular during festive seasons and special occasions (see Hurst, 2009). While overtime rates were not perceived by Kenyan workers as particularly attractive given the relatively low base-rate, this phenomenon had some notable implications for trust-building, from the point of view of Chinese employers, who appeared oblivious of the impact of a low-wage strategy.…”

Solve the Problem or Escape Responsibility? The Politics of Chinese Privatization Reform

“…It must be remembered that RSCs and district governments in the Shanghai had made use of substantial tax breaks and low-interest bank loans to help laid-off workers; this was a policy which no other city could likely implement on such a scale. When Hurst interviewed officers in the Shanghai municipal government, a few people admitted that the program's costs were extremely high, and at least two state council officials went so far as to say that it was "fundamentally impossible" to apply the Shanghai model of comprehensive social security almost anywhere else due to insufficient funds (Hurst 2009). …”

“…The social insurance system had some overlapping functions with RSCs, and it gradually replaced the role of RSCs in 2004 (Hurst 2009). Thus, even though constructing a social insurance system did not directly aid local governments, it did at least disperse the pressures of RSCs.…”

“…The most popular one was the buyout, maiduan gongling. The mechanism of buyouts is that reformed firms give laid-off workers an amount of money at one time to compensate their losses and then the labor relation between firm and worker is terminated (Hurst 2009). Bought-out workers received one-time severance payments, usually based on their years of employment (gongling) at homologous SOEs.…”

The Changing Nature of Labor Unrest in China

“…Workers, who may once have turned down university educations for the promise of lifetime employment on the production line (Blecher 2002: 286), fell in one generation from being "master to mendicant" (Solinger 2004). Chen (2000), Lee (2002Lee ( , 2007, Weston (2004), and Hurst (2009) argued that "subsistence crises," corruption, and a profound sense of betrayal at the dissolution of the Mao-era "socialist social contract" drove SOE employees into the streets in the late 1990s and early 2000s-what Lee (2007) called "protests of desperation." The late 1990s also witnessed an increase in resistance by migrant workers in coastal export-oriented factories.…”