Globalization & Changing Industrial Relations in Taiwan's Banking Industry

As workers move away from manufacturing jobs to white collar and service jobs, the pattern of industrial relations also changes. High performance HRM practices have become more and more popular in Taiwan while trade unions are fast fading away. Collective bargaining is rapidly becoming a thing of the past in Taiwan because white collar and knowledge workers do not like to join unions since their employment, level of pay and benefits are determined based on their individual performance and innovative and creative abilities and not by collectivism. This article investigates the reasons for the rapid rise in union membership in the banking industry as well as the role played by trade unions when technologies and the work environment have been drastically changing in recent years.