This book analyzes the role of employment relations in the context of economic development in some of the key Asian economies - China, Hong Kong, India, Malaysia, the Phillipines, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan. In recent years, these Asian economies have become increasingly more open and export-driven, and there is strong interest all over the world in the Asian economic miracle - among practitioners and scholars alike.

Unions have been among the most salient symbols of pluralism in modern democratic nations. Yet now their influence is waning. What are the reasons for this decline? What, if anything, can unions do to stop the downward trend? And should we care if unions decline? This book contains papers drawn from a variety of countries, which consider the future of unions as a labor and social movement. The focus is truly international and the contributors are all distinguished scholars.