A major focus of China Labour Bulletin's work is in the peaceful and beneficial resolution of labour disputes, strikes and protests, all of which have increased rapidly in China in recent years. To this end, in 2002 we established our Labour Rights Litigation Programme, in which we identify cases of labour rights abuse, provide legal advice and support to the Chinese workers concerned, and help them and their families seek justice through the court system. To date, CLB has had significant success in both civil and administrative lawsuits, as well as in providing lawyers to defend worker activists subjected to criminal prosecution. In the process, we have established cooperative links with law firms across China.
However, litigation is often a means of last resort, and where possible CLB tries to achieve a directly negotiated or arbitrated settlement between workers and management. In 2005 we began to promote the use of factory-wide, collective labour contracts as a mechanism for dispute resolution, and as an alternative to management-imposed corporate codes of conduct. Since collective contracts have to be negotiated by the workers' own representatives and are legally enforceable, they can both empower the workforce and improve labour-management relations.
CLB's experienced research team has produced a wide range of Chinese language and English language research reports that provide an in-depth analysis and overview of some of the most important aspects of labour rights in China today. The reports will be of particular use to scholars and researchers but will also provide the general reader with a valuable introduction to specific issues such as the workers' movement, child labour, migrant workers, healthy and safety, the coal mining industry and the legal framework of labour rights in China.
CLB is committed to defending workers' rights and has compiled a detailed and continually updated list of worker activists currently imprisoned in China.
Our Chinese and English language websites are dedicated to getting CLB's message out to a domestic Chinese and international audience. And through our international advocacy work, we seek to encourage the outside world to better understand and participate in the continuing struggle for workers' rights and civil society in China. We issue press releases on important labour related issues, produce regular bulletins and a digest of articles from the website which are sent out to our subscribers around the world. Click here, if you would like to subscribe to our publications.
CLB is widely recognized as reliable source of expert opinion on Chinese labour issues, and is regularly quoted at length by international and domestic Chinese media organizations.
In order to be of even greater assistance to the media and general readership, we are creating a resource centre, which will include a series of background articles that will give readers a detailed introduction to major topics of interest such as the reform of state-run enterprises, migrant workers, unemployment trends, workplace health and safety, insurance and pensions, labour dispute arbitration, etc.
