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Strategies & Market Trends : China Warehouse- More Than Crockery -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RealMuLan who wrote (3610)	10/31/2004 1:05:57 PM
From: RealMuLan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 6370

China pushes Wal-Mart, others to set up unions The communist trade federation is threatening to sue foreign companies By Christopher Bodeen / Associated Press Eugene Hoshiko / Associated Press China's trade union plans to compile a "black list" of foreign-invested companies that have yet to set up union branches. SHANGHAI, China - China's official Communist Party-controlled trade union is threatening to sue foreign companies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Dell Inc. and Eastman Kodak Co. if they don't set up union branches in their China operations. The unionization drive, announced in official newspapers last week, is the latest attempt by the 123 million-member All China Federation of Trade Unions to penetrate the most dynamic sector of the economy, shore up its declining membership and boost its lowly political status. "The AFCTU feels challenged and is losing membership. To survive, it has to do more," said Anita Chan, a research fellow specializing in Chinese labor issues at Australian National University. Unlike past unionization campaigns, this one appears to come with teeth and if enforced could oblige foreign-invested companies to give the Communist Party a say in the running of their companies' China businesses. The trade union federation - the only legal labor organizer in China - plans to collaborate with local governments and company employees to compile a "black list" of foreign-invested companies that have yet to set up union branches, said Yang Honglin, deputy director of the Grass Roots Organ Building Department. Those that refuse union requests to set up branches "could be sued," Yang was quoted as saying in an article published in the state-run newspaper China Youth Daily. The push to unionize workers at foreign companies has little to do with workers' rights. In China, branches of the trade federation usually are management-controlled bodies with little authority that work mostly to prevent conflict. American computer maker Dell, identified as a target of the campaign, Eastman Kodak Co. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc. have remained mostly quiet about the matter. An earlier statement by Wal-Mart said its China operations, however, follow the company's global no-union policy. "Companies in China are not required to have trade unions, and therefore this position is fully consistent with the law," it said. No figures are available for the number of foreign companies that have unions, but official media last year reported that only 2,000 of Shanghai's 5,000 foreign-invested companies have them. "Setting up unions is not an easy matter. Management refuses and often workers are not interested," said Chan. Officials also fear that pushing for union branches might drive away investors, she added. By turning to the courts, the government's labor body is showing increasing sophistication in going after a company like Wal-Mart, whose no-unions policy has provoked criticism in the U.S. and elsewhere, Chan said. It's unclear whether the law requires foreign companies to allow unions. The trade federation contends that union branches are required according to a law, amended in 2001, that states that unions "shall be set up" in all companies. The law is vague about the penalties for companies that refuse to allow unions, saying only that they will be required to "make rectification." The campaign is more likely an attempt to expand the influence of the trade federation and the Communist Party in the fast-growing private sector, said Bill Taylor, who studies Chinese unions at the City University of Hong Kong. State-owned companies have Communist Party branches, but nonstate ones don't. detnews.com