Report: President's order led to Wal-Mart union in China

August 17, 2006|Associated Press

BEIJING -- An order by President Hu Jintao prompted China's state-sanctioned labor group to launch a campaign that led to the creation of Wal-Mart's first Chinese union, according to a newspaper report.

Such personal involvement by Hu in dealing with foreign companies is rare, and could help explain the All-China Federation of Trade Unions' surprise success in forming a Wal-Mart union in July after the world's largest retailer resisted organizing efforts for two years.

In a written order to the trade union in March, Hu said, ``Do a better job of building [Communist] Party organizations and trade unions in foreign-invested enterprises," the Beijing News reported, citing the group's records.

The ACFTU responded by setting up an office targeting a Wal-Mart in Quanzhou, where employees voted July 29 to form the company's first Chinese union, according to the paper's report.

Since then, employees at 16 other Wal-Marts in China also have formed unions, according to the ACFTU, the umbrella group for unions permitted by the communist government.

If accurate, the report could presage sharply increased efforts to organize unions at foreign companies.

The ACFTU says only 26 percent of China's 150,000 foreign companies have unions.

An ACFTU spokesman would not say whether an order by Hu led to a special effort targeting Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which employs 30,000 people at 60 stores in China.

Unions in China usually represent the workforce of a company rather than a whole industry.

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