Recent Industrial Relations Developments in China and Viet Nam: The Transformation of Industrial Relations in East Asian Transition Economies

Abstract

Industrial relations in China and Viet Nam are on the way to divergence. The official industrial relations actors in China have attempted ‘institutional cloning’ of key elements of modern industrial relations such as tripartite consultation and collective bargaining within the political limit imposed by the Party-state. This attempt of preemptive corporatism has so far failed to address the rising tide of various forms of labour disputes while yielding some positive results of gradual strengthening of official trade unions at the workplace. Industrial relations in Viet Nam are characterized by more vibrant associational dynamism at national and provincial levels, which is obvious in the co-existence of cooperation and competition between and within the industrial relations actors. Workers in Viet Nam display greater degree of spontaneous solidarity in the form of well coordinated ‘wildcat strikes’, which are accommodated by the government and the official trade unions at higher level.