A senior Chinese official has urged trade unions to play a positive role in assisting laid-off factory workers to find new jobs, as part of the broader objectives of reform, development and stability.
Wei Jianxing, chairman of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, made the remarks during the ninth conference of the 13th presidium of the federation on Thursday.
Wei, who is also a member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau, spoke highly of President Jiang Zemin's recent speech given at the national working conference on re-employment, and urged trade unions at all levels to study and execute Jiang's instructions.
Trade unions should consider the task of assisting laid-off workers to locate employment as an integral part of their duty to safeguard the legal rights of factory workers, the official said.
Trade unions at different levels should join hands with local governments and enterprises in implementing the central government's policies on reemployment, he noted.
The top trade union leader stressed that all plans concerning staff cuts, factory restructuring, and re-shuffling of employees due to bankruptcy must first be approved by the workers' congress before they can be implemented.
Over the next three years, it is expected that local trade unions will help train and re-employ 1.5 million unemployed factory workers, he said.
In a related development, the union leader noted that, over the next three years, the number of centers in 50 large cities established to assist poverty-stricken factory workers would top 200.
( September 28, 2002)
