HONG KONG LABOR UNION MEMBERSHIP

By Richard Moncure

General Characteristics of Agricultural, Industrial, and Information Age Labor Union Membership

• Agricultural Age Labor Union Membership:

  No labor unions: labor not yet urbanized or organized: peasant uprisings in rural areas are largely spontaneous.

• Industrial Age Labor Union Membership:

  Rise of labor unions in Western capitalist countries, not socialist countries (where dictatorship of the proletariat or state was supposed to represent the workers). Adversarial relations between worker and owner or managers in industrial Western countries.

• Information Age Labor Union Membership:

  Decline in labor union membership in capitalist countries, with decreasing blue collar jobs. Also movement towards worker ownership of stock in companies they work in, making them both workers and owners, thus eliminating this traditional adversarial relationship. Recent rise in communist countries, demanding better conditions, led to end of communism in some countries.

Conclusions on Hong Kong (Whether Primarily Agricultural, Industrial, or Information Age Re: Labor Union Membership)