中国の企業における工会の発言力に関する実証研究―工会満足度のアンケート調査を基にして―

抄録

This paper discusses the voice of labor unions in China. It takes into consideration the transformation of industrial relations in the socialist state that introduced a market economy. Specifically, it examines how unions' voice (union's activities) affects workers' union satisfaction levels after the country transitioned to the socialist market economy in the era of globalization. This transition's characteristics are: growing economic and social disparity, frequent conflicts over the rights/benefits between workers and management, frequent collective strikes, and increasing demand for the unions that are currently semi-governmental organizations to act on behalf of the employees.

A questionnaire survey was conducted in six manufacturing companies based in Jiangsu province in collaboration with local academic institutions. The unions' voice in China's industrial relations was investigated using employer-employee matched data (368 surveys). As a result, union-related data was collected that would otherwise not be publicly accessible on the national level. Moreover, the existing quantitative research on the regional level is limited.

Additionally, factor analysis and ordered probit regression analysis were used to verify the following hypotheses: 1. The degree of satisfaction with the union increases with a higher evaluation of the union's activities (see list below: a1, a2, a3, a4). 2. Especially, a1 of explanatory variables has the strongest impact.

In the ordered probit regression analysis, two sets of variables were created:

A. EXPLANATORY VARIABLES - nineteen survey items to evaluate union's activities, evaluated by the employees, using a five-point Likert scale, grouped into four categories using factor analysis :

a1. Adjustment of the industrial relations - Management participation factor,

a2. Education - Employee Benefits factor,

a3. Guarantee of livelihood factor,

a4. Guarantee of primary labor rights factor.

B. EXPLAINED VARIABLES - three survey items asking about the levels of union satisfaction, evaluated using a five-point Likert scale:

b1. Satisfaction with the overall activities of the union,

b2. Satisfaction with union leadership,

b3. Satisfaction with membership benefits.

The results of the ordered probit regression analysis show that the following three outcomes were clarified. Firstly, the results of the average of the levels of union satisfaction are b1 (3.818), b2 (3.834), and b3 (3.773). Secondly, the average of the levels of union's activities shows that the items of a1 are low, while the items of a2 and a3 are high. Third, the two hypotheses were accepted since four factors in set A significantly influenced three factors in set B, and the impact of a1 on set B was the largest.

The results of this study indicate that employees in the six companies studied in the Jiangsu province (concentrated around Nanjing) are satisfied with their unions, while they are taking a growing interest in unions' roles regarding voice- such as the improvement of the democratic management of enterprises-system, including representing workers in labor disputes. In the future, unions are required to deepen reforms, especially regarding factor a1, to prevent the increase of dissatisfaction among workers. Such efforts are currently required to improve the voice and the representativeness of the union under the tripartite principle. Primarily through methods, such as enhancing communication tools between workers and management, implementing a system in which executives are elected directly by union members (or representatives), recruiting talented people with legal qualifications to the union executive positions, preventing the democratic management of enterprises-system represented by the workers' congress system and the collective salary negotiation system from losing substance.