Second trade union established at Wal-Mart store in China

World's leading retailer Wal-Mart saw its second trade union in China established on Friday morning in southern city of Shenzhen, just six days after its first trade union being formed in a store in Fujian Province.

Forty-two employees of Wal-Mart's Hujing store in Shenzhen, the first outlet set in China, braved the typhoons and elected their first trade union committee, and a 27-year-old employee named Zhou Liang was elected chairman, Saturday's Workers' Daily reported.

Zhou was quoted as saying that the committee will "safeguard the lawful rights and interests of the employees" and "cooperate with the enterprise operators", in a bid to "harmonize" the relationship between employees and employers, as well as to promote cooperate development.

A trade union was formed at Wal-Mart's Jinjiang outlet last Saturday after 30 employees appealed to the local federation of trade unions. It is the first trade union among Wal-Mart's 60 Chinese outlets, which employ a total of 23,000 people.

The move came after more than two years' efforts by the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) to push the giant to set up labor unions in its 60 outlets around the country.

As the world's leading retailer with 1.6 million employees in 16 countries and regions, Wal-Mart has a tradition of not allowing trade unions in its outlets, for which it has been widely criticized by human rights and labor organizations.

With mounting pressure from the ACFTU and the public, Wal-Mart China gave in in 2005 by saying in a statement that "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."

According to China's trade union law, enterprises or institutions with 25 employees and above should establish trade unions, and all employees have the right to join the ACFTU, and anyone who applied for the setting up of a union should be approved by the company.

A senior official with the ACFTU said earlier this week that all Wal-Mart outlets in China must eventually allow trade unions.

"This is only the beginning. Our goal is to spread trade unions to every Wal-Mart outlet in China," said Guo Wencai, director of ACFTU's department of grassroots organizations.

One of the major tasks of the ACFTU in 2006 is to push foreign-funded or transnational companies to unionize, according to sources with the ACFTU.

Up to date, about 26 percent of China's 150,000-odd overseas-funded enterprises have so far established trade unions, with a total membership of 4.29 million.

ACFTU said it plans to boost the ratio to 50 percent by the end of 2006.

Source: Xinhua