When Li Wan, then a cashier at one of Walmart’s outlets in the booming city of Shenzhen in southern China, attended a two-day collective bargaining seminar in Hong Kong, she never imagined she might become an exemplar of progress in labour rights in China. 李婉（Li Wan，音译）在担任沃尔玛(Walmart)深圳一家门店的收银员期间，曾赴香港参加了一个为期两天的劳资谈判研讨会，她从没想到自己有可能成为中国劳工权益发展进程中的一个范例。

Ms Li, a softly spoken 37-year-old, was on sick leave at the time for a back injury. Photos from the seminar at the Centre for Chinese Law at the University of Hong Kong were spotted by the government-backed All China Federation of Trade Unions, which sides with employers in China. Ms Li believes union representatives informed Walmart. “The company then called stores, asking managers to figure out who was in the photo,” she says. Ms Li was fired for “dishonest conduct” by Walmart in 2011. 李婉今年37岁，说话轻声细语。参加上述研讨会时，她正因背部受伤而在休病假。那次研讨会是在香港大学(University of Hong Kong)中国法律研究中心(Centre for Chinese Law)举行的，研讨会的照片被中华全国总工会看到了。在中国，官方背景的中华全国总工会是与雇主站在一边的。李婉相信，工会代表将此事通知了沃尔玛。她说：“公司当时给店里打了电话，让经理辨认照片中的人是谁。”2011年，李婉因“不诚实行为”被沃尔玛解雇。

In September last year, Shenzhen’s Intermediate People’s Court ruled that her termination of employment was illegal and ordered Walmart to pay Rmb48,636 ($7,800) to Ms Li, who now works elsewhere and prefers to use a pseudonym. Walmart declined to comment on the case. 去年9月，深圳市中级人民法院裁定李婉被终止雇佣关系不合法，判决沃尔玛赔付李婉48636元人民币（合7800美元）。如今，李婉已在其他公司就业，她不愿在本次报道中使用真实姓名。沃尔玛则拒绝就此案置评。

These are encouraging times for those who champion workers’ rights in China. Han Dongfang, who heads China Labour Bulletin, a workers’ advocacy group in Hong Kong, says collective bargaining is beginning to take root. The municipal federation of unions in Shenzhen and Guangzhou, the two largest cities in the export powerhouse of Guangdong recently said it supported such initiatives. To outsiders, this might seem as uncontroversial as the Pope saying he believes in God, but in China official unions typically act as an arm of management. 对那些维护中国劳工权利的人来说，这是鼓舞人心的时刻。总部位于香港的劳工维权团体“中国劳工通讯”(China Labour Bulletin)的主任韩东方表示，劳资谈判已开始生根发芽。中国出口大省广东省两座最大城市深圳市和广州市的市级工会联合会表示支持这种行为。对局外人来说，这种声明可能看起来是理所当然的，就像教皇声称自己信仰上帝一样。然而中国的情况有所不同，因为官方的工会通常是企业管理层的左膀右臂。

At Foxconn, the world’s largest contract manufacturer and maker of Apple’s iPhones, the Fair Labor Association, a US-based workers’ advocacy group, is preparing workers to elect independent trade union committees for the first time early next year. Having spent some time interviewing workers in the alleyways near Foxconn’s factories in order to avoid being hassled by posses of security staff, I remain unconvinced that we are about to see a new dawn in workers’ rights. The handful of recent cases in which provincial trade union officials sided with workers remain the exception. 苹果(Apple) iPhone的生产商富士康(Foxconn)是世界最大的合同制造商。在富士康，公平劳工协会(Fair Labor Association)正在帮助工人为明年早些时候进行的首次独立工会委员会选举做准备。公平劳工协会是一家总部位于美国的劳工维权团体。我花了一些时间来采访富士康的员工，为了避免受到一群群保安的搅扰，采访的地点选在富士康工厂旁的小巷里。但在采访之后，我仍然不是十分确定我们即将看到劳工权益迎来新的曙光。近期出现的这几个省工会官员站在工人一边的案例，只能说是特例。

On March 29, for instance, a dispute between a few employees at Foxconn’s Longhua factory in Shenzhen and management about a proposed move to another facility became so heated that the workers congregated on the roof of one of the buildings. Because Foxconn’s factories became notorious after a string of workers’ suicides in 2010, rumours spread on China’s febrile blogs that workers had committed suicide by jumping off a building. Foxconn says the employees stayed on the roof “until law enforcement officials arrived at the scene” and that the dispute was resolved peacefully. This is progress, but a genuinely constructive environment for collective bargaining ought not to require calling in the police. 例如，3月29日，在富士康位于深圳的龙华厂区，几名工人与主管人员就调岗的提议产生了争执。随着争执愈演愈烈，这几名工人聚集到一栋建筑的屋顶上。2010年，富士康发生了一系列众所周知的员工自杀事件，所以这一次，有关富士康员工已跳楼自杀的传言在中国火爆的博客上迅速传播开来。富士康表示，这几名员工一直呆在屋顶，“直到执法人员赶到现场”，而争端最终得以和平解决。这的确是一种进步，但一个真正有建设性的劳资谈判环境是不该有动用警察之必要的。

Improved workplace conditions in China and elsewhere around the world will come about only if consumers put more pressure on companies to demand better standards from suppliers. 只有消费者对企业施加更大压力、促使他们要求供应商提高标准，中国及世界其他地区工作条件的改善才能真正到来。

Auret van Heerden, who heads the Fair Labor Association, which was brought in by Apple to improve conditions at Foxconn after the contract manufacturer gained infamy in the wake of the suicides, says “consumer pressure is vital but it tends to be quite episodic”. 在富士康因员工自杀事件而声名狼藉之后，苹果引入了公平劳工协会以改善富士康的工作条件。该协会主席奥瑞特•范希尔登(Auret van Heerden)表示：“消费者的压力对此至关重要，但这种压力往往相当缺乏持续性。”

In Bangladesh, where a fire killed 112 workers last November at a factory making clothes for US and European retailers, Mr van Heerden says many garment factories “visibly” do not comply with fire safety standards: “Quality inspectors go in, but the buyers are looking the other way.” 去年11月，孟加拉国一家为欧美零售商生产服装的工厂发生了一起火灾，夺去了112名员工的生命。范希尔登表示，许多服装厂“明目张胆地”违反消防安全标准：“质量监督员已经引入，但是消费者对此毫不关心。”

An activist accused a Walmart official of leading the opposition to proposals to invest in safety improvements during an industry meeting in Bangladesh in 2011, but Walmart has said her remarks were taken out of context and its costs would include the costs of meeting safety standards. 一位社会运动人士曾指控一名沃尔玛管理人员在2011年孟加拉国行业会议期间带头反对为改善生产安全进行投资的提议。不过沃尔玛表示，这是对这名管理人员言论的断章取义，该公司会在成本中包含满足安全标准所需的成本。

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a pair of jeans on a whim that cost about $13. But what I saved in money, I gained in guilt. Consumers who can afford it now have guilt-free alternatives. They can buy brands such as Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein, whose owner PVH has agreed to help pay for fire safety improvements in factories in Bangladesh. Or they can check websites such as those of the Clean Clothes Campaign, which lists retailers with poor safety records in the developing world. 几周前，我一时心血来潮买了条牛仔裤，花了大约13美元。不过，尽管我省了钱，我却体会到了负罪感。如今，手头宽裕的消费者有了其他选择，可以购买不会带来负罪感的产品。他们可以购买汤米•希尔费格(Tommy Hilfiger)和CK这样的品牌，这两大品牌所属的PVH集团已同意帮助支付改善孟加拉国工厂消防安全的费用。或者，他们也可以上洁净成衣运动(Clean Clothes campaign)等组织的网站查阅一下，该网站列出了在发展中国家拥有糟糕安全记录的零售商的名单。

Businesses should promote more of these options. The people making the world’s clothes, shoes and iPhones deserve at least that much. 企业应当促成更多此类选择。那些为世界生产衣服、鞋子和iPhone的人至少应该获得这种待遇。