POWER AND ITS CONSTRAINT UNDER GLOBALIZATION:
Interaction and interdependency among the Chinese labor, state and the US
market actors through international political economic connections
Reuben A. Guttman
, Kan Wang
, Earl V. Brown
Abstract:
This article analyzes the relationship between the changing political economy
of labor in China and its influence over the US market economy through the economic
and supply chains linking the two systems. Having done so, this article turns its focus
to how the U.S. and potentially other legal systems can influence compliance with
China’s own labor law.
At a macro level, globalization has aroused social change in China by
encouraging internal labor migration, foreign investment and the rudiments of the rule
of law. As the party-state recedes from a position of exclusive economic control, a
globalized civil society movement, along with global corporate governance norms,
and practices begin to influence Chinese society. The linking of China into a global
production system exposes the reality of China’s working conditions to the world.
Corporate ignorance of Chinese labor law, and an alliance between capital and
local governments has enabled labor rights violations to fester. These violations range
from extensive wage arrearages to discrimination against “peasant workers”, gender
inequity in the workplace, and deliberate neglect of basic occupational safety and
health standards and practices.
Violations of fundamental labor norms in the treatment of workers in China have
engendered a race to the bottom while de-stabilizing the basic rights and work place
expectancies of employees.
The development of the rule of law in China fuels rights consciousness among
1
The authors would like to thank Research Assistants Aaron Welo and Matt Bushell for their valuable
contributions.
2
,practices law with the firm of Grant & Eisenhofer, P.A. in Washington,
DC. He has advised, and litigated on behalf of, institutional investors and served as lead counsel in major class or
mass actions on behalf of employees. He has also served as counsel to some of the largest unions in the United
States.
3
Kan Wang is a labor law practitioner and PhD candidate in labor relations at the School of Labor and Human
Resources of the Renmin University of China..
4
Earl Brown is Counsel for Labor and Employment Law at the AFL-CIO American Center for International Labor
Solidarity. In addition to serving as counsel to some of the largest unions in the United States, Mr. Brown has
served as General Counsel to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The legal and policy views expressed
here are Mr. Brown's own and not those of the Center or of the AFL-CIO.
5
In the United States the common law among the states recognizes the right to attain an economic expectancy
absent wrongful interference. Thus the laws of a number of states including, for example, California, and New
Jersey recognize the “tort” of interference with economic expectation. J’aire Corp v. Gregory 24 Cal 3d 799
(1979); Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics And Allied Workers International Union, AFL-CIO, Et Al., V. Wickes
Companies, Inc., 243 N.J. Super. 44 (1990). This tort traces its origins to the British Common Law. See, e.g.,
Lumley v. Gye, 118 Eng.Rep. 749 (Q.B.1853) (one who intentionally induced opera singer to dishonor contract was
liable to theatre owner for lost profits).
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