Global Times - Unions need autonomy to function: official

Unions need autonomy to function: official

Source: Global Times
[01:30 March 10 2010]
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Guo Wencai, director of the grass-roots union building department of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), said that presently, leaders of labor unions worry about offending their bosses and don't do too much. Photo:Xinhua

By An Baijie

Authorities are exploring ways to help the nation's trade unions become more financially independent in an effort to get them to play a bigger role in securing workers' rights, a senior official said Tuesday at the ongoing NPC session.

Currently, trade union heads are on the same payroll as the members they represent.

"Labor unions are reluctant to protect workers' rights because they are paid by the same bosses," Gao said. "Lots of labor union leaders face retaliation from their bosses for protecting labor rights."

Gao said that ACFTU is conducting a pilot program to recruit full-time union heads not financed by any companies but with public funds.

"There are already more than 14,000 full-time labor union leaders nationwide, which proved helpful to safeguard the rights of workers," Gao said. "The ACFTU will spend more than 20 million yuan ($2.9 million) in 2010 to promote this project."

Due to the inefficiency of labor unions, workers, especially migrant workers, found it difficult to claim their rights when they were involved in labor disputes that stemmed from payment arrears and work-related injuries or diseases.

Some desperate workers resorted to extreme measures.

Zhang Haichao, a migrant worker in Henan Province, got doctors to open up his chest to prove that he got an occupational disease called dust lung after many hospitals declined to diagnose him with the health problem. He needed the diagnosis to get help.

Zhang's case attracted attention from the Ministry of Health, which probed the case and confirmed he had an occupational disease. Zhang got 610,000 yuan ($89,000) last year from his former employer.

In a joint effort to establish a mechanism to prevent and treat occupational diseases, the Ministry of Health, the ACFTU, the State Administration of Work Safety, and the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security plan to review the issue.

Zhang Mingqi, vice chairman of the ACFTU, said yesterday that there are around 100,000 occupational disease cases nationwide a year. He added that the ACFTU was cooperating with the disease-control department to work out a model for the prevent