China's migrant workers are being welcomed into the fold of the
All-China Federation
of Trade Unions (ACFTU).
The federation, which represents 130 million workers, Thursday
urged grass-roots union to recruit the country's huge population of
migrant workers as new members.
They should also do more to protect the legal rights of migrant
laborers, the federation said.
The ACFTU outlined its decision yesterday in an urgent circular
released nationwide.
Since China's reform and opening-up began, coastal areas have
led the country in developing export-orientated, labor-intensive
processing industries. And since the 1990s, when the country's
economic reforms and development accelerated, the demand for labor
has expanded further.
Statistics reveal there are currently 94 million rural people
working or doing business in cities, of which 6 million arrived
this year.
Most of the farmer workers are from central and western areas,
which are lagging behind coastal regions economically.
The State Council has required governments at all levels to
guide and manage, instead of blocking the flow of labor. And no
discriminatory employment policies should be used against rural
laborers.
But in some enterprises, especially private companies, bosses
have refused to sign contracts with laborers and have paid them
less than they deserved. Moreover, some laborers have to work extra
hours without pay in inferior conditions.
"The very pressing task for us is to mobilize workers in more
private companies to form trade unions," the ACFTU said in the
circular.
The federation said the protective measures would help promote
the cross-regional flow of rural workers, which is important to
integrating the urban and rural economies and establishing a
unified labor market.
In past years, central government policies on migrant workers
have been re-adjusted in line with economic conditions -- from
restriction to permission, from blindly blocking the flow to
actively organizing orderly and reasonable movement, and finally to
aiming for an integrated rural and urban labor market.
(China Daily August 8, 2003)