Made in China Journal (Sep-Dec 2021) Being Water: Streams of Hong Kong Futures

MADE IN CHINA JOURNAL

Made in China Journal. “Being Water: Streams of Hong Kong Futures.”

September–December 2021.

Online access: https://madeinchinajournal.com/2022/03/09/being-water/

Veronika Lemeire and Patrizia Zanoni (2022) European Journal of Industrial Relations

Lemeire, Veronika and Patrizia Zanoni. 2022. “Beyond methodological nationalism in explanations of gender equality: The impact of EU policies on gender provisions in national collective agreements in Belgium (1957–2020).” European Journal of Industrial Relations 28(1): 47–64. https://doi.org/10.1177/09596801211027400

Abstract

Based on an analysis of gender equality provisions in national collective agreements, this article investigates the influence of European Union (EU) gender and macro-economic policy on gender equality outcomes in Belgium since the signature of the Treaty of Rome in 1957. We show that, over time, EU gender equality policies have led to the adoption of provisions promoting formal gender equality and the integration of women in the labour market. At the same time, EU macro-economic policies have stimulated labour flexibility, promoting part-time work largely filled by women, and imposed wage moderation, which has fundamentally hampered the correction of historical indirect gender discrimination in wages. Overall, EU policies have stimulated the transformation of the conservative male breadwinner model of this coordinated market economy (CME) into a gendered ‘one-and-a-half earner’ model, a transformation partially enforced through the increased interference of the state transposing EU policies. Our study advances the current literature by pointing to the limitations of prevalent methodologically nationalist explanations of gender equality outcomes in CMEs. More specifically, it shows that the gender equality provisions of national collective bargaining agreements in CMEs cannot be understood independent of EU gender and macro-economic policies.

Keywords 

Belgium, European gender policy, European macro-economic policy, gender equality outcomes, methodological nationalism, national collective bargaining

Anand Parappadi Krishnan (2022) China Report

Krishnan, Anand Parappadi. 2022. “Vanguard to periphery: The CPC’s changing narrative on the labour question.” China Report 58(1): 60–74. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/00094455221074247

Abstract

With the ideological undergirding of Marxism–Leninism, the Communist Party of China (CPC) has claimed representation of peasants and workers in its vanguard role in actualising the socialist revolution. However, as China has developed economically over the past four decades, there has been an erosion in the status of workers and peasants as legitimate stakeholders in governance and ruling practices. This article attempts to map how labour, once a critical component of the CPC’s political–ideological invocation, has become peripheral as China transitioned to a market economy with an emphasis on economic rationale for growth and reforms. It examines the changing contours of the CPC’s discourse and practice over the past 100 years on the labour question, sandwiched as it is between the need for continued economic growth as a legitimating tool and the continued reiteration of being representative of the working class.

Keywords 

Labour, workers, workplace relations, Party-state, trade unions, All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU)

Cioce, Gabriella, Ian Clark and James Hunter (2022) Industrial Relations Journal

Cioce, Gabriella, Ian Clark and James Hunter. 2022. “How does informalisation encourage or inhibit collective action by migrant workers? A comparative analysis of logistics warehouses in Italy and hand car washes in Britain.” Industrial Relations Journal 53(2): 126–41. https://doi.org/10.1111/irj.12359

Funding information: The Home Office; Arts and Humanities Research Council

Abstract

Cross-national research is key to understanding the global presence of informal and non-compliant workplaces. This article comparatively examines how informalisation encourages or inhibits collective action led by migrant workers employed in Italian logistics warehouses (LWs) and the British hand car washes (HCWs). The term collective action derives from mobilisation theory and refers to joint resistance initiatives developed by workers and labour organisations to improve work conditions. The article argues that migrant labour does not necessarily lead to informal practices and claims that labour market regulatory agencies and trade unions play an important but dialectical role in responding to labour market non-compliance and informality. Finally, it notes that sector-based specificities contribute to and potentially inhibit the emergence of collective dynamics in such workplaces.