Center for Global Work and Employment Events

The 2019 Vietnamese Labour Law, which came into effect on January 1, 2021, allows for the establishment of workers' representative organizations, known as Internal Employee Organisations (IEOs), independent of the official trade unions under the Vietnam General Confederation of Labour. This reflects the widespread, ongoing industrial conflicts marked by illegal wildcat strikes led by unofficial workers' representatives due to the absence of effective trade union representation. The new legislative framework is seen as a significant step toward industrial democracy, with the potential to shift the dynamics of workplace representation in Vietnam. The expected outcomes—such as improvements in working conditions, better law enforcement, and more effective conflict resolution—have yet to materialize. More than three years have passed since the legislation was enacted, yet no IEO has been established to date.

This seminar will offer an in-depth analysis of why this is the case. It will provide an overview of the current state of Vietnamese trade unions and the labor dispute landscape in the country. Furthermore, it will demonstrate how Vietnam's corporatist and authoritarian political system has adapted to maintain its longevity and legitimacy in the era of globalization. Finally, the seminar will outline a research agenda focused on the conditions necessary for the emergence, development, and future function of IEOs.

Has China’s rapid economic growth reached to an end? What lessons can one learn to appreciate China’s historical ascendance to material abundance? Based on his  newly published book, Professor Wang revisits the four narratives commonly seen to account for China’s spectacular transformation in the last four decades: that China’s growth was preordained, it was guided by state initiated reforms, it relied on a vast reservoir of cheap labor, and that China’s experience is unique.  He traces the origins of this transformation, summarizes the paths of China’s rise to material abundance, and revisits its underlying driving forces. He argues that China’s ascendance was in essence an industrialization and urbanization process with special Chinese characteristics, that China’s growth originated from grassroot initiatives in the society, and that China’s cheap labor was good and exploited labor. With the surplus created during this age of abundance beginning to shrink, the Chinese state is facing increasing fiscal challenge as China exits from its age of abundance. Rapid population aging, persistent inequalities, and a return to political rigidity are among the major headwinds that are likely to accelerate the end of this era.

Mao and Markets (Yale University Press, 2022/3), a Financial Times Best Book of 2022, examines these questions and charts how the lasting legacy of Mao Zedong’s ideological principles, mass campaigns, and socialist institutions enduringly influence Chinese economic and political actors and so are essential for understanding the country’s future trajectory.

These sources of information will provide high quality empirical evidence that will show that Common Prosperity should focus serious attention on rural families and provide them with the training and support so all rural children can grow up in an environment in which they can thrive.

Join the Center for Global Work and Employment and the Center for a Research Talk by B. Sebastian Reiche, PhD of IESE Business School.

This talk is based on Professor Lei's forthcoming book, The Gilded Cage: Technology, Development, and State Capitalism in China (Princeton 2023). Since the mid-2000s, the Chinese state has increasingly shifted away from labor-intensive, export-oriented manufacturing to a process of socioeconomic development centered on science and technology. Ya-Wen Lei traces the contours of this techno-developmental regime and its resulting form of techno-state capitalism, telling the stories of those whose lives have been transformed—for better and worse—by China’s rapid rise to economic and technological dominance.

The Center for Global Work and Employment co-organized a summer camp with Rutgers Global for students from Renmin University of China on the Rutgers-New Brunswick Campus. 

The Center for Global Work and Employment Relations co-organized a conference with Renmin University of China on "Technology and Work" at Renmin University, Beijing. The Center for Global Work and Employment Relations co-organized a conference with Renmin University of China on Technology and Work at Renmin University, Beijing, July 16-18. More than 120 scholars and students from 46 universities in the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, and China participated in the conference

Join the Center for Global Work and Employment (CGWE) on Thursday, July 13 and Friday, July 14 from 9:30-11:30am to celebrate the culmination of the first Global Future of Workers (FOWers) Initiative!

Our current capitalist system is jeopardizing the future of the planet. How can we create the coalitions capable of moving us towards an ecofriendly solidarity society? In this talk, we will explore the priorities of the powerful, the mistaken theories that justify their hegemony, and the alternative world views that are firing the imagination and efforts of feminists and other activists to bring about transformative change.