BEIJING -- World's leading retailer Wal-Mart saw two more trade unions
established in its outlets in China over the weekend, making the total number
hit four just a week after its first trade union was formed in southeast China's
Fujian Province.
Saturday night, 31 employees of Wal-Mart's Xinjiekou store in Nanjing,
capital city of east China's Jiangsu Province, convened to announce the
establishment of the third trade union in Wal-Mart's Chinese stores.
And 12 employees of Wal-Mart's Qianjinlu store in Shenzhen city, south
China's Guangdong Province, elected their first trade union committee a few
hours later in the wee hours of Sunday.
"The rapid development and promising future of the trade unions are
heartening," Xu Deming, vice president of the All-China Federation of Trade
Unions (ACFTU), was quoted as saying by the Workers' Daily.
"We'll draw on their successful experiences to push forward the establishment
of grassroots trade unions in enterprises including the transnational ones," Xu
said.
Dong Yuguo who is in charge of the public relationship in Wal-Mart China told
Xinhua in a telephone interview that Wal-Mart has not been officially notified
on the establishment of the trade unions and thus could not comment on them.
He also said the company's stance has not been changed that "Should
associates (its employees) request the formation of a union, Wal-Mart China
would respect their wishes and honor its obligation under China's trade union
law."
Wal-Mart's 60 Chinese outlets employ 23,000 people. The first trade union was
set up at Wal-Mart's Jinjiang outlet on July 29 after 30 employees appealed to
the local federation of trade unions.
The second was set up last Friday at Wal-Mart's Hujing store in Shenzhen. It
is reported that Wal-Mart was reluctant to have trade unions in its outlets.
Trade union's membership dues, however, remain a tricky problem for Wal-Mart
and the ACFTU to tackle with, since according to China's trade unions law, a
company has to allocate two percent of its payroll to its trade union as
membership dues in China, which has in part hampered transnational enterprises'
enthusiasm to form labor unions.
Though a great deal of media hype surrounded the formation of its first trade
union in Fujian, the event caused few ripples in the Chinese outlets of the
retail giant.
With some 500 employees in Wal-Mart's Jinjiang store, only 30 of them become
trade union members, and a majority of the rest do not even know a trade union
has been established for their interests.
Wang Shaokai, an executive with the Jinjiang store, said both Wal-Mart
headquarters and store knew nothing about the Jinjiang trade union prior to its
setting up.
"We learnt it from media report," Wang said.
Ke Yunlong, newly-elected chairman of the trade union committee at the
Jinjiang store, said, "We have yet had time to conduct detailed discussion on
our work. But I believe the membership will increase with our endeavour."
According to China's trade unions law, enterprises or institutions with 25
employees and above should establish trade unions, and employees have the right
to join the ACFTU.
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.
