As stipulated by the Chinese Trade Union Law, all laborers in the enterprises, institutions and organizations in China have the right to join and organize trade union in line with the law. No organization or individual shall be allowed to put curb or restriction on it.

"There is a strong resistance against, and low rate in, the organizing of trade union in non-public-owned enterprises while the resistance from some transnational and renowned enterprises against the organizing of trade union is quite obvious," said a responsible member of All China Workers Union when he provided the reporter with the latest "Collected Information of Investigation on Execution of Trade Union Law" the other day.

As learned the law enforcement and checkup group of the People's National Congress and All China Workers Union has recently conducted a supervision and checkup on the implementation and enforcement of the "Trade Union Law" in Liaoning, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Yunnan, Hubei, and Inner Mongolia, a total of 16 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions. They discovered in the examination that some of the international corporations in China disregard the Law of China and openly opposed to the establishment of the trade union.

"Walmart, US Kodak (Xiamen) Ltd, US Dell Computer (China) Ltd in Xiamen, eight subsidiary companies of Tianjin Samsung Group, Shenzhen Fuxconn, Guangzhou Zhentai Group Co., Zhongda Electronics (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., Xijie International Sci-tech (Wuxi) Co., Ltd and many local Kentucky and Macdonald foreign capital enterprises and renowned privately owned enterprises, they have been set up and in operation for many years but so far there is no establishment of trade organization," the responsible member of All China Workers Union told the reporter.

Up to the end of 2003, there were 734,000 non-public enterprises in China with a total of 24.879 million trade union members. Along with the development of non-public economy in China, and with a big increase of workers in foreign-invested and private enterprises quite some resistance has been encountered in organizing and setting up the trade unions.

As introduced in the "Collected Information of Investigation on Execution of Trade Union Law", the "Walmart has so far established 35 bazaars in 17 cities in China, none of which has established trade organization. Walmart set up its headquarters in Shenzhen. When Chairman of General Trade Union of Shenzhen called on the company dealing with the topic he was turned down politely yet the second time of his calling was rejected, saying that ��Walmart has no precedence of establishing trade union round the globe'. The resistance of Walmart against the establishment of trade union has effected a very big negative influence in society. As it rejected to establish trade union in Shanghai it was not permitted to do any investment there in Shanghai."

The responsible member of All China Workers Union told the reporter, the Walmart branch enterprises in China have a total member of 19,000 working staffs. It has set up shops and markets in Shenzhen, Dalian, Kunming, Beijing, Xiamen and Fuzhou and some other cities, but none of them has any establishment of trade organization. Members of the general trade union of Shenzhen, Dalian and Kunming have respectively contacted the Walmart in different places yet the Walmart put on uncooperative airs resisting the organizing and setup of trade union.

As introduced the US Kodak (Xiamen) Company Limited too resisted for a long time the establishment of a trade union. As Kodak Co. put forward, the establishment of the trade organization is the internal affair of the trade union and it has nothing to do with the enterprise. Kodak is the brand-name of the company and no organization is allowed to use it. So the trade union must not be called the trade union of the Kodak Company and the company will not provide any office and place of activities for the trade union. No office or place for trade union activities is allowed to be set up in the company nor the personnel of the company is permitted to take part in any activities of the trade union.

"The major reasons leading to the happening of the situation are: for one thing, some foreign-capital and private enterprises are afraid of increasing their cost, afraid of involving into politics affecting production and so they adopt a passive attitude to put it back while some resist openly, and for another is that some few local governments are bothered that the establishment of trade union will affect the initiative of foreign investment and so they assume a nonchalant and nonsupport attitude." Member in charge of the legal department of All China Workers Union told the reporter.

As revealed in the "Collected Information of Investigation on Execution of Trade Union Law" some local government pay a lopsided attention to the growth of the GDP, taking a great account of the capital while a light account of the workforce and are negligent of maintaining and guaranteeing the lawful rights of the workers. There exists an obvious violation of the law in policy. For instance, the "rules and regulations imposed by local authorities" of Guangdong Province stipulate it's allowed to "put back the setup of trade union" and "not to join in the social insurance within five years" in the foreign invested enterprises. The examination on the execution of the law should go through some departments or even through the approval of the administrative government. They put up a "green board" in front of the enterprise for exemption of supervision or examination as well as a "green light" to the actions in violation of the law in regard of the labor guarantee and so on. These policies run obviously contrary to the "Trade Union Law" and they are related to many aspects of life and difficult to handle in a coordinated way, thus exerting a very big negative influence on maintaining the rights and benefits of the workers. Moreover, the imperfection and unhealthiness in the law, regulations and policies in support of the Labor Law, the insufficiency in the government execution of the law and no mechanism for maintaining the rights in part of units have also made the infringement on the rights of the workers ineffectively curbed.

Guo Wencai, Chairman in charge of the Basic Organization of All China Workers Union suggests that all places should grasp some typical cases to make a breakthrough and punishment in accordance with the law so as to establish the authority and dignity of the law and clear away the obstacles on the way of organizing the trade union.

By People's Daily Online