Is the ACFTU a Union and Does it Matter?

2007 ◽  
Vol 49 (5) ◽  
pp. 701-715 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bill Taylor ◽  
Qi Li
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Chinese Communist Party ◽  
International Context ◽  
Domestic Labour ◽  
Independent Union ◽  
Constructive Engagement ◽  
Trade Union Organization ◽  
Positive Results

This article seeks to examine whether the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) is a trade union organization, with implications for foreign unions, governments and other parties seeking to engage it. After examining the international context of pressure on China, the article will briefly outline the historical and present structure of the ACFTU and examine the problems the ACFTU faces in carrying out its functions. The article will argue through a number of criteria of union characteristics that the ACFTU is not a union. This is a more fundamental position than arguing the ACFTU is not an independent union. However, because the ACFTU is a state organ, closely subordinated to the Chinese Communist Party, foreign engagement can potentially lead to positive results for China's domestic labour. Finally, the article will briefly make suggestions for constructive engagement with the ACFTU as a state organ rather than as a union.

scholarly journals Rethinking Strategy for Gender Equality in Trade Unions

2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 29
Author(s):  
Indrasari Tjandraningsih
Keyword(s):  
Women Workers ◽  
Gender Equality ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Improvement Program ◽  
Union Leaders ◽  
Strategic Role ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Trade Union Organization

<p class="p1">The non-strategic role and position of women workers in trade union organization, even in the women-dominated sector, is hardly changed even though the number of women members of trade unions is increasing. Various programs have been carried out to increase the strategic role of women in trade union organizations but so far have not shown significant results. Based on interviews with officers of gender equality programs for trade unions, union leaders and women and men members and literature studies this paper offers an idea of the need for a non-exclusive approach and actively and proportionally involving men in awareness-raising and gender equality programs for trade unions. This idea is based on the fact that in trade unions gender-related program is always left to or only involves women. The strategy in the gender equality awareness and improvement program that only involves women causes the program’s effectiveness to be low because half of the causes of the problem is not involved.</p>

Ten Reasons Why I Oppose Boycotts Against Israeli Academics (And Why You Should Too!)

2019 ◽  
pp. 83-86
Author(s):  
Robert Fine
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Racial Democracy ◽  
First Time ◽  
Socialist Politics ◽  
Political Battle

This is not the first time I have been embroiled in a boycott debate. In the 1980s, I was involved in solidarity work with the fledgling indepen- dent trade unions in South Africa. They were a living expression of non-racial democracy across so-called national lines. Solidarity included establishing direct links between South African and British unions at official and rank–and-file levels. As a result of our solidarity activities, we were pilloried by leading figures in anti-apartheid, the ANC, and the South African Communist Party for breaking the boycott! When we invited a South African academic, a leading advocate of the new unions and anti-apartheid scholar, to speak at our Comparative Labour Studies pro- gram at Warwick University, a demonstration was organized by a couple of SACP stalwarts to prevent him from speaking. When we wrote a trade union solidarity pamphlet, we were told that unions could only be legal in South Africa if they collaborated with the regime and that we were in effect collaborationists. Beneath the argument about boycott what was really going on was a political battle between a progressive socialist politics and quite reactionary nationalist politics. It is a battle that has not stopped and is rising to the surface in contemporary South Africa. I grant there is no direct analogy between the boycott of apartheid South Africa and that of Israeli academic institutions, but I contend that a similar political battle is taking place—a battle for our future political life.

Ireland and the First International

1972 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 44-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Boyle
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Trade Union Movement ◽  
Union Movement ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Fenian Brotherhood ◽  
Eighteen Fifties ◽  
Political Apathy ◽  
James Stephens ◽  
Trade Union Organization

Ireland in the eighteen-fifties was quiescent through exhaustion. The great famine of the eighteen-forties had resulted in heavy population losses through death and emigration and demoralized tenant farmers had offered but a feeble resistance to wholesale evictions. The failure of the Irish Confederate risings of 1848-49, the collapse of tenant-right agitation and the disintegration of the Independent Irish Party at Westminster, had left the country sunk in political apathy. The trade union movement did not escape the general paralysis and the Regular Trades Association, a central organization that had developed in Dublin during the eighteen-forties, disappeared. Not until 1859 was there renewed trade union activity in the form of a campaign to abolish night-baking; though it had only limited success, it helped to bring about the appearance in 1863 of a new grouping of Dublin trade unions, the United Trades Association. It was, however, not a trade union organization but the Irish Republican Brotherhood that aroused the country from political torpor.The I.R.B., known in North America as the Fenian Brotherhood, was a secret oath-bound society pledged to establish an independent Irish republic. Its first leader was James Stephens, who had founded it in 1858 after his return from an exile following the 1848 rising. Its membership was drawn from the rural and urban working class – the sons of small farmers, mechanics, artisans, laborers and petty shopkeepers. In 1861 Stephens skillfully stage-managed the funeral of Terence Bellew McManus, a Confederate exile whose body was brought back for burial in Ireland, and thus aroused an unprecedented interest in “The Organization,” as its members called it.

O strukturze związków zawodowych po nowelizacji prawa związkowego z dnia 5 lipca 2018 r.

2019 ◽  
Vol 78 ◽  
pp. 24-39 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michał Barański ◽  
Iwona Gredka-Ligarska
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Paid Work ◽  
New Type ◽  
A Company ◽  
Trade Union Organization

This study is an analysis of the existing regulations regarding the construction of the trade union organization, the mechanism for raising objections regarding the number of members of the trade union organization and the representativeness of trade unions. The latest amendment to the Trade Unions Act, introducing a change in the coalition law in trade unions, modifies the structure of the trade union organization at the same time. Also the criteria for establishing representativeness of a company or supra-company trade union organization have been materially amended. As regards supra-company trade union organizations, the threshold of representativeness has been increased from 10% to 15% per total of not just employees, as previously, but all persons performing paid work and covered by the scope of a given organization’s statute. Also on the company level the percentage thresholds of representativeness have been increased. In addition, the legislator introduced a new type of representativeness, which may be described as employee representativeness.

scholarly journals From Employee to Homo Faber? Considerations About Union Renewal and Informal Workers in Brasil and India

Just Labour ◽  
1969 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lorenzo Frangi ◽  
Supriya Routh
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Emerging Economies ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Employee Relations ◽  
Informal Workers ◽  
Union Renewal ◽  
Homo Faber ◽  
Trade Union Organization ◽  
Union Structure

For the purpose of trade union renewal, it is suggested that trade unionsneed to convert themselves from being institutionscentred on employer-employee relations toopen sourceones engaged with broader social justice issues.In this article, we offer two elements to the debate on trade union revival: first,we focus on two rapidly emerging economies with a corporatist and state-centered union structure (i.e., Brazil and India);second, in the context of thesetwo countries, we challenge the idea that informalworkers are a burden for tradeunion organizations. We consider the possible contributions that informalworkers could make towards the renewal of trade unions in these two countries.We argue that trade unions could take advantage ofthese contributions if theyovercome theemployeehorizon, which originated in Western countries andexcludes millions of workers from its purview in Brazil and India. We proposethe concept of “homo faber” as a new horizon for trade union organization, whichis inclusive of both formal as well as informal workers.

scholarly journals PECULIARITIES OF TERMINATION OF LABOR CONTRACT WITH THE LEADER OF LEGAL ENTITY ON REQUEST OF ELECTIVE BODY OF PRIMARY TRADE UNION ORGANIZATION

Social Law ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 63-68
Author(s):  
N. Melnychuk
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Legal Entity ◽  
Employment Contract ◽  
Legal Norms ◽  
Labor Legislation ◽  
Union Representative ◽  
Modern Level ◽  
Or Organization ◽  
Trade Union Organization

The article discusses some aspects of the process of termination of the employment contract with the head of the enterprise, institution or organization at the request of the elected body of primary trade union organization (trade union representative). It is noted that the requirement to terminate the employment contract with the director does not terminate employment contract by itself, but obliges the employer to terminate it. Carried out the analysis of the distinctive features of the consideration of the proposal of the trade union body regarding the termination of the employment contract with the head of the legal entity on the Draft Labor Code. The innovations of the bill are recognized as justified, timely, such that they correspond to the modern level of development of labor relations and called upon to balance the interests of the parties to the employment contract. A number of features that need improvement have been identified, namely: 1) consolidation of the obligation to consider the representation of the trade union for its validity; 2) the need to assess the severity of violations of labor legislation, collective agreements and contracts, the Law of Ukraine "On Trade Unions, their Rights and Guarantees"; 3) Elimination of the obligation of the employer to appeal against the requirement of the primary trade union organization (trade union representative) as a condition for stopping the execution. The author of the article notes that the determination of the nature of the violation by the head of the enterprise, institution, organization of labor legislation will contribute to the effectiveness of sanctioning legal norms, and the abolition of the obligation of the employer to appeal the requirement of the primary trade union organization (trade union representative) to the court will make it possible to prevent abuse of their rights by the trade unions.

scholarly journals Moonakast kodanlaseks, kodanlasest terroristiks: Hans Heidemann ja tema tegevus 1920. aastate alguse Eesti pahempoolses poliitikas [Abstract: From farm hand to bourgeois, from bourgeois to terrorist: Hans Heidemann and his activity in Estonian left-wing politics in the early 1920s]

2018 ◽  
pp. 403
Author(s):  
Mari-Leen Tammela
Keyword(s):  
Communist Party ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Soviet Period ◽  
District Court ◽  
Left Wing ◽  
Coup D'etat ◽  
War Of Independence ◽  
The Government ◽  
The City

The ideologised treatment of history in the Soviet period celebrated communists who had perished or been executed in the interwar Republic of Estonia as martyrs. They fit in to the narrative of class struggle and its victims. Monuments were erected in their memory and memorial articles appeared in the press on anniversaries of their birth. One such communist featured during the Soviet period was Hans Heidemann (1896–1925), a trade unionist and member of the parliament of the Republic of Estonia, and also an underground Estonian Communist Party activist. He was arrested as one of the ringleaders in the attempt to overthrow the government on 1 December 1924 and executed in 1925 as a spy for Soviet Russia by decision of a military district court. This article relies primarily on archival materials from the Estonian National Archives. It is an attempt to write a political biography of Hans Heidemann that for the first time aims to more closely examine the course of the life of this individual who has been ideologised many times over. His room for manoeuvring and his possible influences in the space in which he operated are reconstructed. The article examines how this man of modest background but with a relatively good education, a veteran of the Estonian War of Independence who served as a staff clerk, became an activist in the trade union movement, a communist, and eventually an organiser of a coup d’état. It also considers why Heidemann was the only one at the subsequent major trial of communists in 1925 to be sentenced to death. An important context for Heidemann’s rise in politics is the struggle for control in the trade unions that took place in the early 1920s among Estonia’s left-wing parties. While the communists dominated the trade unions of industrial workers in the cities, they had to compete with social democrats and independent socialists for control in unions of rural workers. Southern Estonia and the City of Tartu formed a more problematic operating region than the average district, as in 1920–21 the Security Police had liquidated many large communist networks there. Heidemann was a member of the Party of Independent Socialists but when in 1922 the party was taken over by its communist-oriented left wing, he started gravitating towards the underground communists. At that time, the communists needed able organisers in order to regain their positions in Southern Estonia and it seems that they pinned their hopes on Heidemann. In 1922 Heidemann rose to leading positions in the trade union organisations of both Tartu County and the City of Tartu, and also became one of the leaders of the left wing of the Party of Independent Socialists. It is not clear, however, whether Heidemann had officially joined the Estonian Communist Party, or functioned as its legal operative. In January of 1924, when the Security Police arrested many trade union leaders and political activists associated with the communists, Heidemann went underground. Over the next eight months, he attempted to obtain weapons for overthrowing the government and to form combat squads mainly on the basis of youth organisations. He was unable to participate in the attempted communist coup d’état on 1 December since he had been arrested two months earlier in Tartu. But his trial was held under changed conditions after the failed coup. By that time, the Protection of the System of Government Act had been passed and the communists had been expelled from parliament. Even though Heidemann had been charged with working as a leader of the local organisation of the underground Communist Party and forming combat squads for the planned coup, he was sentenced to death and executed on the grounds of the charge for which there was least evidence. According to this charge, he had allegedly gathered military information for the Soviet Union as a soldier in the War of Independence six years earlier. Different sources suggest that this charge was questionable and unconvincing. It seems that there was a wish to convict Heidemann as the head of the regional communist organisation no matter what, and to punish him as harshly as the actual participants in the failed coup were punished, which the other counts of indictment did not allow.

scholarly journals TRADE UNIONS AS AN INTEGRAL ELEMENT OF PUBLIC SERVICE

2019 ◽  
pp. 13-19
Author(s):  
O.S. Bezvin
Keyword(s):  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Legal Status ◽  
Civil Service ◽  
The State ◽  
Civil Servants ◽  
Labor Rights ◽  
Rights And Interests ◽  
Trade Union Organization

The article deals with the trade unions as a grant to protect the rights and interests of civil servants, reveals the main tasks of trade unions. The activity of trade union organizations in the structure of the state body in Ukraine is analyzed. The legal mechanisms of asserting the violated rights of a civil servant by a trade union organization of a public body and the role of trade unions in protecting the rights of civil servants in developed countries are emphasized. The state at certain times gave the trade unions great powers to protect the rights and interests of workers, and then deprived the trade unions of these powers. In connection with this, various problems arose in regulating the activities of trade unions in the protection of individual and collective rights and interests in the protection of public servants. All this affected the legal status of trade unions. However, it should be noted that trade unions are in constant flux and this leads to improvements in the regulations governing their activities. However, it should be noted that today there are many problems in Ukraine regarding the exercise by the trade union organizations of their powers in the civil service. In particular, the legal status of trade unions in the civil service is not regulated enough, which, in turn, does not allow them to fully protect the legal rights and interests of civil servants. Considering the importance of trade unions in protecting labor rights and the socio-economic interests of workers, in developing democratic forms of citizen participation in managing economic and political processes, a democratic, legal, and social state, which is Ukraine, should support trade unions and take care of legislative consolidation. their authority. Trade unions at all levels should once again return to the consideration of their core functions and pay attention to those that will now be more conducive to the achievement of the main objective of the creation and activity of trade unions – the protection of social-labor rights and interests of trade union members. Today’s Ukraine needs strong unions. A strong union is a union that effectively protects the interests of its members, enjoys their trust and support, is able to organize, if necessary, collective action to protect the socio-economic rights and interests of employees, has sufficient organizational, financial, and human resources to fulfill its statutory tasks. Keywords: trade union organization, protection, rights, the role of trade unions, legal mechanisms.

scholarly journals Organizacja związkowa jako administrator – wybrane zagadnienia

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 259-270
Author(s):  
Arleta Nerka
Keyword(s):  
Data Processing ◽  
Trade Union ◽  
Trade Unions ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Legal Protection ◽  
Employment Relations ◽  
Specific Nature ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Data Controller ◽  
Trade Union Organization

Trade union as a data controller: Selected issues The study covers the issues of identifying trade union structures as data controllers at the level of collective employment relations. Considering the specific nature of the subject matter of trade unions’ activity, the issue of processing personal data accompanies them in the performance of their tasks, often causing interpretation problems. The article also focuses on the characteristics of a trade union organization as a data controller. The analysis also covers the grounds for data processing, with particular emphasis on the legality of data processing subject to special legal protection.

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