All-China Federation of Trade Unions demands right to unionise everywhere in Guangdong, claiming it wants to protect all workers. Companies are reticent, fearing a single trade union will be under the thumb of the Communist Party since independent trade unions are banned in the People’s Republic of China.

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – All multinational companies in Guangdong must set up labour unions by the end of this year, said the provincial branch of the state-run All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

With more than 17 million migrant workers (over one third of the national total) and above 70 per cent of its economy in the private sector, workers' salaries, working hours and work security are key issues in the province.

Chinese law gives employees of any company with a work force of at least 25 people the right to form a union. But foreign employers are often accused of pressuring employees not to organise.

For trade unions in Guangdong better unionisation would benefit all parties by better protecting workers’ rights who then will have greater motivation to work for their companies. Currently, the province has 137,000 labour unions with 14.77 million registered members, the highest number in the country.

But if all workers must join the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, which is recognised by the Communist Party, independent trade unions are not allowed.

Foreign companies have objected to trade unions on the grounds that they are not free associations but are instead controlled by the state.

Many experts agree that the government is trying to use trade unions to exert greater influence on foreign companies but also to regain control over workers in successful companies as a way to prevent street protests or the creation of independent worker associations whose mandate would be to defend the interest of their members.

A report issued by the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference said a growing number of collective labour disputes "were mainly caused by the malpractice of employers, especially in the Guangdong and Fujian provinces”.

Migrant workers are often exploited. In July, thousands of workers at the Merton Co. in southern Guangdong province that makes plastic toys for US companies like Disney, Mattel and McDonalds rioted. They were being paid just US$ 72 a month (the local minimum wage), required to work 11 hours a day, six days a week, and not compensated for overtime, according to New York's China Labour Watch.

Recently in Guangdong, unions were set at the US retail giant Wal-Mart which has a work force of 36,000 and 68 stores.

Taiwanese firm Foxconn Electronics, which has the largest investment in the mainland, had to unionise its workforces in the country as well.

But in Hong Kong, Han Dongfang, founder of the first independent trade unions who spent three years in prison, said that exploitation can only be ended if workers had independent trade unions.

“In the United States in the 1920s unions could have favoured the development of communism but that did not happen. It is ironic that now in China trade unions are said they might transform the country into a democracy.”  (PB)

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