Posted on 10/28/2004 10:43:53 AM PDT by Willie Green
For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.
SHANGHAI, China — China´s official Communist Partycontrolled 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 this 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," Anita Chan, a research fellow specializing in Chinese labor issues at Australian National University, said Wednesday.
Unlike past unionization campaigns, this one appears to come with teeth and if enforced could oblige foreigninvested companies to give the Communist Party a say in the running of their companies ´ China businesses.
American computer maker Dell, one of the companies identified in the article as a target of the campaign, had no immediate comment.
Eastman Kodak Co. ´s Beijing office said a spokesman wasn´t available while a spokesman for Wal-Mart Stores Inc. could not immediately be reached.
However, an earlier statement by Wal-Mart said its China operations follow the company´s global no-union policy. As of July Wal-Mart had 39 locations, and 20,000 employees, including support staff in China. "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. Local officials also fear that pushing for union branches might drive away investors, she added.
The push to unionize workers at foreign companies has little to do with workers´ rights. In China, branches of the trade federation are usually management-controlled bodies with little authority that work mostly to prevent conflict.
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 foreigninvested 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 Tuesday in the state-run newspaper China Youth Daily.
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 United States 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 non-state ones don´t. "With the union in place, the party has its only access point into these enterprises," Taylor said.
Walmart, put the jobs in Mexico you smucks.
Communism just doesn't get it!!!!
There is a reason why China is growing and it is not because they are geniuses. It is cheap labor morons. Lay off the golden goose. Union is a growth killer. Just ask the rest of the world
Communism just doesn't get it!!!!
There is a reason why China is growing and it is not because they are geniuses. It is cheap labor morons. Lay off the golden goose. Union is a growth killer. Just ask the rest of the world
What kind of unions do they have in slave labor camps?
At an early stage in a nation's industrialization labor unions can provide a beneficial service to the working poor, as they did in America.
Statistics show that 99% of the Anti free market threads come from the same 1% of posters.
Just two of the many organisations who use force to attain their goals. And violate the rights of others as they do so.
Brownshirts
If Walmart rolls over for this can you imagine the headlines here? "Walmart Supports Union in Red China and Not in United States" They would be better off pulling out of the country altogether.
Every dollar spent in Wal*Mart today will come back to the US tomorrow in the tip of missile.
I agree however, they (the unions) adjusted an imbalance in primitive capitalism that needed correction. It would have happened either way. Take industrialization as an example. The standard of living jumped exponentially because of innovation and the entrepreneurial spirit in the west not because of unions. Unions are a result of NOT a reason for a growing SOL. The same can be said of environmentalism (although I tend to think that the movement is nothing but a hidden agenda by the liberal left to regulate, control and re-distribute wealth but in a more nefarious manner!)it is necessary to put a check on runaway growth at a given moment in time.
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