While western mining and metals firms execute a jobs bloodbath, Aluminum Corporation of China takes a different approach to weather a downturn.

Until this downturn China looked like it was on a full speed course to mimic the worst of the values that make up contemporary capitalism. The down turn may have come at precisely the right moment to remind the Chinese people that beneath the battle for political rights there exists a value set that would serve other capitalist systems.

So far this week, we have heard that Anglo-Australian mining giant BHP Billiton is slashing jobs by 6,300. Rio Tinto Alcan has announced it will cut 1,100 jobs worldwide because of a slump in the aluminium price. Last year Rio slashed 12,000 jobs because of flaggin demand for commodities.

And of course such large scale layoffs are not confined to the mining and metals sector.

How refreshing, then, to read today that Aluminum Corporation of China will be responding to a significant fall in profits not by laying people off but by slashing senior executive pay by 50%, and reducing the pay of other workers by 15%.

There is a lesson in there not just for western employers but also for unions.

As President Obama said in his inaugural address:

"For as much as government can do and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. It is the kindness to take in a stranger when the levees break, the selflessness of workers who would rather cut their hours than see a friend lose their job which sees us through our darkest hours."

Over the coming years, we may need to be reminded of such values by those less steeped in free market fundamentalism.

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