The Role of Technology in the China Labor Movement

Today the New York Times has yet another very interesting article on the continuing labor strikes in China… but this specific article focuses on the role that technology is playing. The strikes are not new news; what I found interesting is the ways in which strikers are communicating with each other, and how they are using technology (be it computers or phones) to unite with similar laborers across the country.

By taking advantage of technology, these workers are gaining power as a cohesive movement as well as informing themselves on their rights and on China’s labor laws. In doing so, they are becoming a much more powerful threat to the Chinese government as well as the private sector.

According to the NYT article, the Chinese government has already “started cracking down on strike-related Web sites and deleted many of the blog posts about the strikes.” Similarly, the same article states that there is proof that private sector companies are also reacting to the threat of technology by spying on employee communications.

This band-aid short-term approach will not work. The reality is that the Chinese population is increasingly connected and tech-savvy. In recent years China has made astounding progress in narrowing the digital divide in the country, and according to the World Bank, in 2008 there were close to 300 million internet users in the country. This number has surely risen substantially in the past two years.

Keeping this reality in mind, I urge both the government and the private sector to embrace technology as they negotiate with workers, and use it to their advantage as they develop long-term strategies to address workers’ concerns. For example, why not use the internet and text messaging as vehicles to inform workers of their rights and local labor laws? Why not set up websites where workers can make complaints and air grievances? Why not think out-of-the-box and create ways to address these grievances through the same technologies that workers are already using? The Chinese government and private sector companies need to realize that this movement is not going to disappear, and that censoring or spying will only complicate the situations and increase mistrust.