Creating Worker-Management Committees to Promote Workers' Voice in China.

From 2002 to 2007, a bilateral project on labor in China was undertaken with support from the U. S. Department of Labor and in cooperation with China's Ministry of Labor and Social Security (now the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security). One element was a demonstration project in the city of Qingdao that created worker-management committees in companies to discuss and resolve workplace issues. Over an 18-month period, elected worker representatives and management appointees met bimonthly. An analysis of the records of these meetings and examples of workers' strategies for gaining agreement provide a window on both the kinds of issues of concern to workers and also the tactics used by workers to seek agreement. The worker-management meetings provide a possible approach to introducing greater workers' voice into the management routines of Chinese companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]