ACFTU and Trade Unions

ACFTU branches to be established in all US invested companies in Guangdong

In recent months western foreign-owned enterprises in China have been increasingly crying foul over what they see to be a campaign against them by the Chinese government. Many foreign companies – primarily  Western brands -  state that they are being unfairly called upon to abide by Chinese labour laws when no one else does, that they are having their tax breaks reduced, their investment scrutinised and that they are the real targets of the new Draft Contract Law currently being discussed by the Chinese government.

The ACFTU has also been accused by western companies of unfair targeting in its recent drive to increase its membership (and revenues) and has for the past few years been calling upon well known foreign brands like Wal-Mart, KFC, Carrefour, Kodak, Dell and scores of others to allow them to establish branches in all factories. It now appears that the ACFTU is setting its sights upon North American firms in particular.

According to the mainland newspaper the Yangcheng Daily, the provincial ACFTU in Guangdong Province has announced that it aims to "set up unions at all companies from the Fortune 500 in Guangdong," by the end of 2007.

The aim is for the provincial ACFTU to recruit more than one million new members and establish branches in 80 percent of all foreign invested companies in Guangdong and in particular will target all 300 companies from the list of the top 500 companies in the United States as complied by Fortune Magazine which operate in Guangdong Province. 

Tang Weiying, chair of the Guangdong provincial ACFTU was quoted as saying; "The purpose [of setting up unions] is to promote corporate development by protecting the basic rights of workers, who will then have greater motivation to work for their companies”. 

Tang Weiying was paraphrased in the Yangcheng Evening News' Web site as saying that Chinese unions "don't protect rights for the sake of protecting rights, but rather mobilize the initiative of workers to promote the development of enterprises….Many foreign companies are afraid of setting up unions because they were scared off" by unions in their home countries.”

The federation vowed to focus on workers' salaries, working hours and work security as this year's priorities, the newspaper said.

Guangdong's union expansion initiative comes after the province's recent successful campaign to force Wal-Mart and IPod-making Taiwanese firm Foxconn Electronics to unionise its workforces. There are now branches at some 62 Wal-Mart shops around China.

Guangdong has the highest proportion of migrant workers in China and one of the highest numbers of labour disputes every year.

The ACFTU has set a national goal of organizing unions at 70 percent of foreign companies this year after allegedly meeting its target of 60 percent in a campaign launched in 2006. According to official figures Guangdong has 137,000 ACFTU branches with 14.77 million registered members, the highest number in the country.  

 
Sources: South China Morning Post, Associated Press 29 January 2007

IHLO
January 2007