The world's leading retailer Wal-Mart saw its third trade union
in China set up over the weekend in Nanjing, capital of east
China's Jiangsu Province, just a week after its first
trade union was formed in a store in east China's Fujian Province.
Thirty-one employees of Wal-Mart's Xinjiekou store in Nanjing
elected their first trade union committee, and a 22-year-old
mid-level management employee named Wu Yinzheng, who has a
university education background, was elected chairman.
Wu vowed in the election that the committee would safeguard the
legal rights and interests of employees according to the laws of
the country, and try to maintain a smooth relationship between
employees and employers.
Within the committee, a financial department and women's
federation were also formed during the Saturday election.
According to Chen Siming, chairman of the Nanjing Federation of
Trade Unions, he and fellow workers had tried to talk operators of
Wal-Mart Nanjing branch into setting up a trade union ever since
its establishment in 2004, but got no reply from management.
So Chen tried direct contact with Wal-Mart employees, which
finally led to the formation of the new trade union.
"Some foreign enterprises seem to think that trade unions will
go against employers' profits. It is absolutely wrong. A trade
union is only an organization to protect the rights of the
employees and update their skills. It will only benefit the
enterprises, not harm them," Chen told China Daily.
But employees who signed their names for the trade union were
reported to have suffered pressure from Wal-Mart operators.
A worker who declined to reveal his name was quoted by local
newspaper Yangtze Evening Post saying that the Wal-Mart
management in Nanjing even threatened not to renew contracts if
workers joined the union.
But Chen Siming said that the municipal union would back the
legal rights of its union members and fight against job
discrimination.
Zhao Dachun, head of the Publicity Department under the Nanjing
Federation of Trade Unions revealed that about four other Wal-Mart
branches in Jiangsu would also set up trade unions within the
year.
A trade union was formed at Wal-Mart's Jinjiang outlet in Fujian
Province on July 29 after 30 employees appealed to the local
federation of trade unions, marking the giant retailer's first
trade union in the country.
And 42 members in a Shenzhen store, Guangdong Province, founded a second trade
union on August 4 , just a day before the Nanjing committee.
Wal-Mart China has so far not given any response to the
formation of three trade unions within its enterprise.
And a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart China said she did not know
anything about the unions or similar moves at other Wal-Mart
branches when she was interviewed by China Daily last
Friday.
However, the move was reported by Xinhua News Agency as being a
result of more than two years' efforts by the All-China Federation
of Trade Unions (ACFTU) to push the retail giant to set up labour
unions in its 59 outlets around the country.
According to China's trade union law, enterprises or
institutions with 25 employees and above should establish trade
unions, all employees have the right to join the ACFTU, and anyone
who applies to set up a union should be allowed to do so by the
company.
Xu Deming, vice president of the ACFTU, said that trade unions,
organized on employees' own volition, can safeguard the economic,
political and cultural rights of workers and also help "lubricate"
the relationship between employees and employers.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc, which set up shop in China in 1996 and
employs more than 30,000 people at stores across the country, has
long resisted pressure in many countries to unionize its workers,
an action frequently criticized by local trade unions and
governments.
But Wal-Mart China released a statement last November, saying
"should associates request the formation of a union, Wal-Mart China
would respect their wishes and honor its obligation under China's
trade union law."
ACFTU statistics show that by last September, only about 26
percent of the more than 150,000 foreign-funded enterprises in
China had set up trade unions.
(China Daily August 8, 2006)