Trade unions seek democratic election in China

With labour disputes involving demands for higher wages increasing across China, a top trade union official has demanded democratic election of union leaders to ensure their better functioning at grassroot level.

"Democratic election of union leaders is a good way to ensure better functioning of grassroots trade unions," Guo Chen, deputy division chief of the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), told the state-run China Daily.

"Through democratic elections, union leaders who represent the interests of employees can really stand out," she said.

At present many union leaders are appointed and paid by the companies whose workers they were commissioned to protect, Guo said.

Her call for democratic elections in trade unions is significant as China despite being a communist country has no established trade union practices ever since it began opening its economy for private and foreign investment two and half decades ago.

In fact, cheap labour and absence of active trade union bodies became the prime attraction for foreign firms to invest in China.

Until recent flash strikes which caught the officials and managements by surprise no major pay revisions were carried out for years.

The strike in Honda and later in Toyota went on for weeks as the managements had to negotiate with the mass of workers refusing to accept the mediation of the appointed trade union leaders, questioning their credentials. Guo said a properly functioning trade union should help management to realise the significance of collective negotiations as employers were not willing to sit down and talk about wages with their workers.

"If the Honda auto parts plant in Foshan had negotiated with workers and reached an agreement on a wage mechanism, employees might not have resorted to strikes," Guo said.

She blamed "inefficient" grassroots trade unions in private and overseas-funded firms for a spate of strikes over the past few months.

Last year, about 684,000 cases were reported to labour arbitration committees, while more than 319,000 labour dispute cases were heard by the courts, according to ACFTU.