Utilización de medios de pago en compras al crédito

The structure

The distinctive characteristic of the TDK union was its dual structure with co- existence of the party and the union. There was a matching configuration of their structures, the arrangement of overlapping personnel, and co-working of the party and the union. The party in TDK had been established in 1994, yet the work of the party committee was not fully implemented. In 2000, when Ms W took the office of both union president and secretary of the party branch committee, there were only 11 party members in TDK. Ms W actively engaged in recruitment of Party members and the expansion of the Party. In 2003, Ms W was appointed as ‘the supervisor of Party building’ by the Party and Trade Union Committee of DLDZ, who had the authority to recruit party members across enterprises. By 2011, she had established two general party branches, six party branches at the company level, of which three were in TDK. The number of party members she enrolled amounted to one hundred and fifty-three. Half of them were TDK members – the rest were members in forty-three private enterprises in DLDZ.

In most of the enterprises in DLDZ, the positions of Party secretary and union president were both embodied in the union president, appointed by the superior Party committee. Yet this particular approach of ‘integrated union-party’ was not evident in the cases of Nidec and Tostem, despite the fact that both union presidents were also the secretary of the party committee in the companies. The Nidec union president stated that, ‘the party committee meant nothing, only nominally it leads the union.’ In Tostem, where four party cell groups existed, the union president had not shown his commitment to the important role of the party committee in leading the union. The role of the party organisation in Tostem was minor. The party meeting was covert, which can only be held in spare time; while the trade union meeting can be held in working time.

It was the common-place among the three cases that the grass-roots party organisations had low party membership among ordinary workers. In Nidec, the trade union membership was 100% while the party members numbered around 90, but only 1% of the frontline workers were party members. And in Tostem, only two frontline

workers and one IT staff were party members. Similarly, in TDK 60% of the managers were party members, not frontline workers.

The TDK union was structured in four layers, which were, in order, the union president, the union committee, the union branch and the union cell group. Ms W adopted the approach that ‘the Party leads the union’, which was a party-union integrated approach. In a similar structure with the trade union, the party organisation was divided into four layers. In order, they were the party secretary, the party committee, the party branch and the party cell group. There were eighty party members in TDK. Members of the party committee and union committee were interchangeable in a cross-exchanging of their positions. It benefited the union internal management.

“In my first time of leading the union committee meeting, someone said ‘president, since you are the party member, you shall do the work and we will have no time to do union work.’ Then I realised (it was because) none of the committee members were party members. Now except two, the entire union committee members were party members. Will not the union work be easier to carry out?”432

Union relations with management and workers

The union kept a distance in the union-company relations. This was illustrated not only by its physical assets in the company – a large office, a union sponsored supermarket, an anteroom and a union-company shared activity room – but also by the union’s attitude in front of the company.

“You should get the Japanese accustomed to the Party and the trade union, to ensure they pay attention to the union. We will get across the policy of the Party and government to the Japanese managers in the beginning of their terms of office. The general manager told me ‘I’ve never been in a formal wage negotiation in China.’ I replied ‘the wage negotiation in here has been formal for a long time, I hope you will get used to it’. This year, the vice general manager attended the meeting at the provincial level regarding the construction of harmonious labour relations. After that,

the provincial newspaper and television agencies came to interview us. To cooperate with the media, we invited the manager to attend a seminar on wage negotiation.”433

The union-party approach provided top-down communication channels whereby rank- and-file workers were seldom involved in the governance of the institution. The imbalance of the union-workers relations was based on, rather than a ‘legal duty’, but a ‘moral duty’, as was conceived by the union president,

“The union should always sit with the workers, because they are a disadvantaged group.”434

Rank-and-file workers were seldom involved in union governance, neither in union elections nor in its functioning. In wage negotiations, union committee members normally took the duty of the bargaining representatives. Some of the union committee members were department heads. In collecting workers’ demands, the trade union officers brought questionnaires to the workshops where workers could write down their opinions. The questionnaires were distributed at random. Workers did not participate in the nomination of union candidates, not even at the lowest level.

“I did not know about the nomination of our union cell group leader. And I did not know how the union candidates were elected. We voted for several people who had been selected. Maybe some of them recommended themselves. If everyone was a candidate, things would be a mess.”435

Union functions

The Party organisations in DLDZ mainly engaged in activity such as ‘ideological work’, ‘honouring worker models’, or ‘working as the workers’ guardian’ to unite workers. Some union functions were merged with Party activities. Programmes such as welfare distribution, training, entertainment, were implemented in the joint names of the Party committee and the union committee. The union’s communication with workers was also carried out through a top-down approach that all the party members                                                                                                                

433 _{Interview, Ms W, president of workplace trade union, TDK, DLDZ, 18}th _{August 2011.} 434 _{Interview, Ms W, president of workplace trade union, TDK, DLDZ, 18}th _{August 2011.} 435 _{Interview, worker in TDK, DLDZ, 18}th _{August 2011.}

should ‘actively engage in workers’ thinking by chatting with workers at every chance’.

Given the local union customs and practice, the union had rights to veto on some aspects pertinent to workers’ issues such as dismissal, working hours, the reward system, and the penalties committee. In 2005, the enterprise released a notice of temporary layoff of any pregnant workers, which offended relevant laws. The trade union robustly argued against the company until they cancelled the notice. The union had also carried out a wide range of welfare distribution to workers and their households who were in difficulties.

Besides its protection role, the ‘integrated union-party’ approach contributed to boosting productivity and saving labour cost by motivating workers. It engaged actively in implementing suggestions for rationalization. During the 2009 financial crisis, the union and the party committee made collaborative efforts in mobilising workers for flexible attendance, energy saving, productivity increase, and technical improvements. The economic recovery brought about a 20% increase in the production requirement in one production department. The trade union held meetings to mobilise workers in boosting productivity. Around 2000 workers worked overtime voluntarily and finished the production requirement on time. In March of 2011, affected by the earthquake and the tsunami in Japan, production in a major workshop of TDK halted. About 150 employees were laid off. They were given the option to either leave with compensation or take a move within the internal posts. For the former, the company would pay a considerable amount of compensation. The trade union then organised the union and the party members to persuade these workers to move their posts rather than leave the company. As a result, nearly half of the employees agreed to stay at the company.

In wage negotiations, as well as the normal ways of collecting information as a basis for bargaining (such as company profits, workers’ demands, overall situation of the wage increases in DLDZ, and the eco-social data), the president had her own strategy to win a better result in the bargaining. She campaigned for all kinds of prizes for the company, ranging from local to provincial. The different viewpoints adopted by the

five Japanese managers who had taken office during the president’s tenure had resulted in great uncertainty about the effects of this approach on the negotiations.

Sometimes, it did not work.

“In one wage negotiation, I was given an award as ‘The Headline Champion of Economic and Social Development’ by the provincial party committee. I asked the committee to give my own reward to the manager to make him happy. And I helped the manager to finish the complex process of the negotiation. But in that wage negotiation, the pay rise was not increased. I felt disappointed. The company should have increased the pay rise by – at least – a small amount.” 436

Whilst sometimes the response was positive.

Last year, the president successfully helped the company to get the award of the ‘model work unit’ (mofan danwei), which, in Dalian city, only four enterprises were awarded. The president and the head of the Personnel Department accompanied the manager to the award ceremony conference. On the way back the president said to the manager:

You are great! Why?

You are the first among the four managers who got the reward. It was a great reward, an honor of the company, which should be shared by the workers. How to share it? You should raise the workers’ pay.

So I should raise your wage? I do not care, I am going to retire.

The manager then spoke to the Personnel Department manager to propose a pay rise plan. In that wage negotiation, the wage was raised by 9.6%.