Migrant labour and trade union's response and strategy in China

One unique feature of China's burgeoning economic development in the last two decades has been the extensive participation from the rural migrant workers. This paper outlines how opportunities and experiences at work and in social life of the rural migrant workers are affected by their social (under-)class memberships. It investigates reasons of the recent labour shortages as possible ways of passive collective action (voting with their feet) from the migrant workers in protest of the arbitrary treatments from employers and social exclusion in urban society. The paper evaluates the organising strategies adopted by the trade union in response to the growing presence and needs of the rural migrant workers in comparison with the services provided by other organising bodies.