About 62 million farmer workers in China, or more than half of the total, had joined trade unions by the end of last month, said vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions Sun Chunlan on Thursday.

Trade unions across the country have taken measures to enroll more farmer workers in recent years so that their interests and rights were better protected, said Sun.

Thirty-two million farmer workers have been insured against industrial injury and 27 million had been covered in medical insurance by the end of July, Sun said.

There were 23 million farmer workers in China's trade unions at the end of 2005.

The formation of trade unions in the Wal-Mart outlets in China last year was a major breakthrough in expanding trade unions for better protection of workers' rights in overseas-funded companies in China.

(Xinhua News Agency October 19, 2007)