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Walmart confronts China’s top trade union
PTI - Beijing
Walmart has repeatedly refused to set up trade unions
in its branches in China despite the ruling communist party-backed labour body
threatening to take the world’s biggest retailer to court, according to
a recent report.
Since November 2000 efforts by the All-China Federation
of Trade Unions (ACFTU) to urge Walmart to establish trade unions have been
in vain, the report said.
“We have contacted Walmart several times,”
the Xinhua News Agency quoted Mr Feng Lijun, an ACFTU official, as saying, “but
no progress has been made so far.” The vice chairman of the ACFTU, Mr Xu
Xicheng also told Walmart that it should “establish trade unions sooner
than later, and actively rather than passively.” Before the opening of
the Chinese trade union’s 14th National Congress here on September 22,
the ACFTU officially urged the US multinational company to establish trade unions.
“For companies depriving the rights of employees
to establish trade unions, we reserve the right of resorting to lawsuits,”
the ACFTU threatened. Walmart’s China headquarters responded coolly the
next day by saying that it had effective channels to resolve complaints from
employees. Walmart also said that according to Chinese law, a trade union could
only be installed at the free request of employees, and since there have been
no requests yet, there is no necessity to establish a union.
But the ACFTU contended that although employees of
foreign-funded enterprises wish to have local trade unions of their own, they
can’t afford to raise the issue with their employer for fear of losing
their jobs or other benefits. Quoting “insiders,” Xinhua said the
actual reason for Walmart denying trade unions is cost saving.
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