More than 70 buses blocked the entrance to Chengdu’s Baihua Centre Bus Station on 1 November 2008 as drivers from the Wenjiang Guanghua Bus Co. staged a one day strike demanding wage increases, CLB has learned.

That afternoon, management agreed to an increase of three yuan for each driver, each trip, which according to a Wenjiang Guanghua Bus Co. official would result in an average monthly increase of 500 yuan. The affected 309 and 319 bus routes resumed normal service the following day.

The Chongqing municipal government has made a high profile intervention in an attempt to end the taxi drivers’ strike that erupted on 3 November. The intervention came as teachers in Chongqing’s Qijiang county ended an eight day strike over pay and conditions. Photo of Chongqing taxi by DCF pics @ flickr.com

The Regulations on the Promotion of Harmonious Labour Relations in the Shenzhen SEZ, approved on 23 September 2008, contain some beneficial additions but some important clauses have been removed. Photo of Shenzhen factory workers by Chad Ingraham.

CLB has translated some of the key provisions of the Shenzhen Municipal Implementing Regulations for the Trade Union Law of the People's Republic of China, an important and highly significant piece of legislation examined in our commentary A Turning Point for China’s Trade Unions.

The Implementing Regulations were:

One of the few union activists ever to stand-up to Wal-Mart management has resigned from his position as union chair at Wal-Mart’s Nanchang Bayi store after being by-passed in collective contract negotiations. - Photo by h.dot@flickr.com

We may have reached a crucial turning point in the history of China’s trade union movement. For the first time since 1949, trade union officials are openly stating that the union should represent the workers and no one else, while new legislation in Shenzhen places collective bargaining – previously a no-go area – at the core of the union’s work. Photograph by lille abe@flickr.com

Draft regulations currently before the Shenzhen municipal legislature represent an important development in China’s labour law which could lay the groundwork for improved labour relations and give trade unions the opportunity to effectively represent workers in collective bargaining with management. Photograph. Migrant Workers in Shenzhen by Jervetson@flickr.com

Global retail giant Wal-Mart plans to sign collective labour contracts at all of its more than one hundred outlets in China by the end of September, according to the official Chinese media. Photo by h.dot@flickr.com

Retail giant Wal-Mart has signed a collective labour agreement with the trade union at one of its stores in China. The landmark agreement at the Shenyang store in northeastern Liaoning province covers employee remuneration, annual pay rises, over-time, paid vacations and social security payments.

The lack of legal compulsion and the impotence of many enterprise level trade unions are making the implementation of the Chinese government's collective wage consultation system an uphill struggle, union officials in the central city of Luoyang have conceded. Photo by Saad Akhtar@flickr.com