Anti-Union Wal-Mart Kowtows To Chinese Govt
World Tribune.com
Wal-Mart has caved in to the Chinese Communist Party and is permitting a union in its China operations. This is despite Wal-Mart's staunch anti-union position in the U.S. and the rest of the world.
The world's largest retailer, Wal-Mart operates 43 stores in China out of a total of more than 5,000 across the globe. But the company has rapid expansion plans, and intends on opening another 10 stores in China next year.
China's state-controlled All-China Federation of Trade Unions [ACFTU] had threatened to sue Wal-Mart and other non-Chinese companies if they did not set up union branches. Wal-Mart now says that it will respect "the wishes of employees."
An ACFTU official told the official Xinhua news agency: "Wal-Mart China has shown a positive change of its long-standing non-union attitude."
The Arkansas-based behemoth didn't have much choice. Chinese Communist leadership, faced with growing industrial disputes especially in the Pearl River Delta complex, which leads the export drive, is on a tear to unionize foreign enterprises. The ACFTU is a sophisticated version of what American trade unionists used to call company unions. Not only are they closely affiliated with the Communist Party, but also often their leadership is local government/Party officials. Modeled after those in the old Soviet bloc, they are instruments of control rather than a bargaining device against management.
Copyright © 2004 East West Services, Inc.
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