• Korean Journal of Labor Studies
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.231-276
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• 2017

Chinese society faces increasing outbreaks of labor disputes, may of which are usually characterized as 'the highest level since the establishment of PRC'. Guangdong Province is the hottest place for increasing labor disputes as well as for flexible responses by the local government and labor agencies. Interest-pursuit bargaining model becomes one of the outstanding characteristics for recent labor disputes in Guangdong Province. Chinese central government promulgated well-managed policy package for labor dispute settlement in 2015. Guangdong Province government went one step further by introducing to institutionalize labor dispute settlement. To channel labor dispute conflicts into manageable direction, reliability and capacity of bottom level trade unions become much more essential for the authorities than before. Guangdong Confederation of Trade Unions leads some important experiments of trade union reforms. Employment of 'social cadres' of trade unions by local trade union organizations is the most outstanding experiment to satisfy increasing needs from bottom level ordinary workers who don't have efficient union organizations. It needs to be seen whether changing labor policies go beyond the limits of 'security priority principle'.