More foreign-funded companies in Shanghai will set up trade
unions next year, raising the proportion to 80 percent from the
current 69.4 percent, local authorities said Thursday.
To date, 8,061 foreign-funded companies in the Chinese financial
center have set up trade unions, said a spokesman for the Shanghai
Municipal Council of Trade Unions.
More than 1,800 trade union branches have been set up in
foreign-funded companies in Shanghai this year alone.
The spokesman said 358 companies that appear in the
Fortune magazine top 500 had opened branches or offices in
Shanghai, and 99 had set up trade unions.
The expansions of unions in the east China metropolis could be
ascribed to government efforts since April, he said.
Wal-Mart, which has been widely criticized by human rights
groups and labor organizations because it has traditionally not
allowed trade unions in its outlets, founded its first trade union
in its outlet in Jinjiang City, east China's Fujian Province on
July 29.
Ever since, at least 60 more Wal-Mart outlets in China have
setup trade unions with more than 6,000 members in such cities as
Shenzhen, Nanjing, Jinan, Fuzhou, Shenyang, Dalian, Nanchang and
Shanghai.
Kentucky Fried Chicken, McDonald's, Roche, Pepsi, French bank
BNP and Kodak have all followed suit.
Intel and other foreign-funded companies would set up trade
unions in their Shanghai outlets in the first quarter of next year,
the spokesman said.
Chinese trade union authorities have warned that union
establishment should abide by China's trade union law, and that
unions already established should give priority to safeguarding
employees' rights while accelerating corporate development.
(Xinhua News Agency December 29, 2006)