| ID | 116491 |
| Title Proper | Beyond Tokenism |
| Other Title Information | the institutional conversion of party-controlled labour unions in Taiwan's state-owned enterprises (1951-86) |
| Language | ENG |
| Author | Ming-sho Ho |
| Publication | 2012. |
| Summary / Abstract (Note) | This article challenges the accepted view that during the period of martial law Taiwan's labour unions were "a useless token." Focusing on the petroleum and sugar industries, I analyse the incremental process of how party-state control over the labour unions was converted by the workers themselves in Taiwan's national enterprises. In the early 1950s, the KMT's policy of unionizing enterprises was a complementary strategy to reinforce its slow and unsuccessful party-state penetration. With the unions' prominent role in welfare provision, workers were encouraged to develop a sense of stakeholdership. Over the years, labour unions legitimatized the interests of worker members and thus gave rise to an explosion of claim-making activities - what I call "petty bargaining." By the mid-1980s, labour unions, although still dominated by the KMT, were no longer a Leninist transmission belt, but rather functioned as a de facto complaint centre - an often overlooked precondition for the rise of post-1987 independent labour unionism. |
| `In' analytical Note | China Quarterly Vol. 2012, No.212; Dec 2012: p.1019-1039 |
| Journal Source | China Quarterly Vol. 2012, No.212; Dec 2012: p.1019-1039 |
| Key Words | Labour Union ; Party - State ; Labour Activism ; Institutional Conversion ; Leninism ; Taiwan ; KMT |