在柬埔寨首都金边的一家服装厂，工人们上月末举行了一场罢工，抗议他们的一名工会官员被免职。该工厂为Gap、贝纳通(Benetton)和阿迪达斯(Adidas)生产服装。长期以来，亚洲低廉的劳动力让这些品牌的客户受益匪浅。但柬埔寨纺织业的工会运动如今终于取得了一些成就：7月份，最低工资提高了11美元——比工会要求的低，但足够让罢工浪潮结束。
维权这项重大、甚至是宏伟的任务，在发达国家也许正在急剧衰落，但在追赶它们的国家中却越来越常见，尤其是在中国和东南亚其他国家。在许多新近（或仍在）实行共产主义的国家中，劳动力仍然受到剥削，因此它们亟需工会运动。
中国是最引人注目的例子。尽管受到警方的严密关注，但在今年6月，罢工浪潮还是席卷了中国南方的外资企业，包括本田(Honda)、现代(Hyundai)、肯德基(KFC)和丰田(Toyota)等。这些罢工活动虽然是非官方的，但却取得了成效。包括中国国务院总理温家宝在内的共产党领导人，纷纷呼吁提高工资水平，改善工作环境，尤其是改善农民工的待遇。农民工是广东等地劳动大军的主要构成部分，薪资低、工作没有保障。
温家宝在北京的一次座谈会上表示，农民工的劳动“是光荣的，应该得到全社会的尊重。要关心农民工、爱护农民工、尊重农民工”。不过，正如华威大学(Warwick University)俄罗斯与中国工会问题专家西蒙•克拉克(Simon Clarke)强调指出的，在中国和东南亚，独立的工会常常转瞬即逝，而且入会仍然很危险。官方工会不仅从不发动维权运动，甚至还会镇压。
俄罗斯也存在类似问题：工会完全由共产党把守（实际上也是由共产党创造的）的传统依然存在。告别共产党统治后，国家控制取代了共产党控制。但在已有的工会中，公民与政治运动贫乏已经是一种根深蒂固的文化。西蒙•克拉克就曾指出，俄罗斯的劳工运动“完全受制于（总理）弗拉基米尔•普京(Vladimir Putin)。”
不过，就算俄罗斯不追随潮流，亚洲工会实力的日益壮大也是一项受欢迎之举，它将迫使当权政府增加国内消费、提高技能水平、发展社会福利服务，尤其是面向农民工的服务。当然，无论是余下来的共产党（如中国和越南），还是那些老的官方工会，都不会愿意交出让他们获益匪浅的控制权。即便如此，在较新的维权工会的支持下，经济斗争仍有希望发动起来。
成功的希望在西方要渺茫得多。那里的工会有着辉煌的过去，现在却被视作是无关紧要的。但如今，随着紧缩成为优先选择的姿态，工会开始争相重新树立自己的地位。英国各工会计划于秋季举行示威、召开特别会议、甚至发动罢工，来表达不满。不过，法国公共部门的工人、英国航空(British Airways)的机组人员以及希腊各部门的工人，都已经考验过政府的决心，但无一成功。
事实上，富国的工会在继续变弱，尤其是在私人部门。即使是在与雇主的合作确保了公司层面权力的德国，工会仍然无力阻止收入的下降和人员的削减，也无力改变政府将退休年龄提高至67岁的想法。在联邦工会（即德国工会联合会(DGB)）6月份的会议上，中右翼总理安格拉•默克尔(Angela Merkel)有关“未来几年将非常艰难”的言论，似乎也得到了工会代表的认同——她的演讲赢得了稀稀落落的掌声，而非嘘声。DGB主席米夏埃尔•佐默尔(Michael Sommer)称赞了政府致力于社会均衡的努力——这实际上意味着，他接受了裁员与减薪。
不过，他们或许还是应该提高他们的目标：因为如果他们无法成功实现提高薪资的传统目标，重新求助于他们早年调动的道德力量或许会让他们做得更好。为数众多的工薪阶层与企业高管之间巨大的薪资差距，可以为工会的辩论提供道德论据。劳工运动有机会影响舆论，而且在这样做的时候，工会有机会重获他们因会员流失、志向萎缩而失去的地位。
如果不这么做，发达国家日渐没落的工会，或许会开始用艳羡的目光看着不那么有特权的同行取得成就。“工会让我们变强”曾经是工人运动的口号。但东西方工会实力的对比阐明了一个基本的事实：工会在经济增长时能很好地为会员服务，但在更艰难的时期，道义劝告是它们最好——可能也是唯一——的手段。
译者/何黎
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001034108
Workers at a garment factory in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital, went on strike at the end of last month in protest against the dismissal of one of their union officials. The factory produces for Gap, Benetton and Adidas, whose customers have long benefited from low-cost Asian labour. But union militancy in Cambodia's textile sector can now count some successes: the minimum wage went up by $11 in July – less than the unions wanted, but enough to end the wave of strikes.
The large, even heroic, tasks of protecting rights might be declining sharply in developed nations. But they are increasingly common in the catch-up world – especially in China and elsewhere in south east Asia. In many recently (or still) communist countries, labour remains exploited and union activism is badly needed.
China is the most eye-catching example. Strikes swept through foreign-owned companies – including Honda, Hyundai, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Toyota – in the south of the country in June, in spite of heavy attention by police. Unofficial as they were, they worked. Party leaders, including Wen Jiabao, the prime minister, called for improved wages and conditions, especially for the low paid and precarious migrant workers, who have formed much of the work force in areas such as Guangdong.
Mr Wen told an audience in Beijing that migrants' work “is glorious and should be respected by society at large. Migrant workers should be cared for, protected and respected.” However, as Simon Clarke of Warwick University, who studies unions in Russia and China, stresses, independent unions in China and south east Asia are often fleeting, while membership remains hazardous. Official unions, unused to militancy, even try to suppress activism.
A similar problem is true in Russia, where the legacy of unions wholly dominated – indeed, created – by the Communist party lingers. In post- communist Russia, control by the party has been replaced by control by the state. Established unions suffer from a pervasive culture of poor civic and political activism. As Simon Clarke puts it, Russia's labour movement “is completely under the thumb of [prime minister] Vladimir Putin.”
Yet even if Russia isn't following suit, the growing strength of unions in Asia is a welcome move; one which will put pressure on the regimes to increase domestic consumption, raise skill levels and develop social and welfare services, especially for migrant workers. True, neither the remaining Communist parties (as in China and Vietnam) nor the old official unions will want to relinquish control that has served them well. Even so, bolstered by newer campaigning unions, the economic struggle can be waged hopefully.
Success is a much fainter hope in the west, where unions suffer from a past seen as noble and a present seen as irrelevant. But now with austerity as the posture of choice, unions scramble to reassert themselves. British unions are planning an autumn of discontent with demonstrations, special conferences and possible strikes. That said, French public sector workers, British Airways cabin crew and Greek workers in any sector – all have tested the resolve of their governments and none have succeeded.
Indeed, in rich countries unions continue to weaken, especially in the private sector. Even in Germany, where co-operation with employers has ensured power at corporate level, they have been helpless to stop loss of income, to cancel cuts, or to change the government's mind on raising the retirement age to 67. At the conference in June of the federal unions (DGB) delegates seemed to agree with the centre-right chancellor Angela Merkel – who addressed the union to mild applause rather than catcalls – that “very hard years lie ahead”. Michael Sommer, the DGB chairman, lauded the government's commitment to social equilibrium – which has meant, in practice, acceptance of layoffs and wage cuts.
Yet they might also raise their sights: for if they are unlikely to succeed in their traditional search for better wages they might fare better by returning to the moral force they mobilised in early years. Vast discrepancies in earnings between the bulk of salary earners and those at the top of the corporate sectors can unite ethics and polemics. Labour movements have a chance to sway public opinion and in so doing regain a status they lost with their draining of members and shrinking of ambitions.
If not, the declining unions of the developed world may begin to look jealously at the achievements of their less privileged equivalents. “The union makes us strong” was ever the slogan of workers' movements. But the contrasting strengths of unions east and west illuminate one basic fact: unions do well for their members in rising economies, but in more austere times, moral suasion is their best – and perhaps only – card.
The writer is an FT columnist
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