Vice-President Hu Jintao said Wednesday that unions should encourage the working class -- the main force driving China's reform, opening-up and modernization -- to contribute towards realizing the goals set in the country's 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05).

Speaking at a national conference of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions Wednesday in Beijing, Hu said workers should play a more important role in the expansion and reform of State enterprises.

Hu, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China, said there should be direct channels through which workers can participate in enterprise reform and air their opinions about the establishment of a modern corporate system.

In addition, unions should help arm the work force with first-class expertise and advanced equipment, and support and encourage technicians to develop new skills and products, in order to promote technological advancement and industrial upgrading within their firms, he said.

The vice-president said that trade unions should also focus on safeguarding the interests and rights of workers by fashioning a more effective mechanism to solve the problems of the laid-off workers and workers' rights violations.

The workers' congress should be given more say in management and decision making, he said.

Trade unions should mount a campaign against enterprises which ignore workers' rights, embezzle salaries, arbitrarily extend working hours and disregard workers' safety, the vice-president said.

Hu went on to emphasize the urgent need to form trade unions in non-State-owned firms.

By June this year there were 14.3 million union members in the non-State-owned sector, representing less than 20 per cent of workers in the sector, according to statistics from the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

(China Daily 12/14/2000)