China’s economic transition has, on the face of it, presented the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) and its affiliated “grassroots” branches with a crisis similar to that experienced by unions in many other countries in the same period. Not only did membership decline, but the...

This paper assesses whether the formation of grassroots unions under the Professional Union Leader and Organizer Program' (PULOP) in China provide one viable pathway through which renewal might occur. Data obtained from in-depth interviews with union leaders, rank-and-file members, and data from...