5-yearly national meeting held as labour relations grow more tense
The world's largest trade union opened its five-yearly national congress yesterday, with critics calling on it to play a bigger role and act tougher as labour relations become more tense and conditions for workers deteriorate.
Delegates representing the 209 million members of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) convened yesterday for its 15th national meeting in Beijing, Xinhua reported. The meeting runs until Tuesday.
For the first time, among the 2,118 delegates are 47 migrant workers - representing the tens of millions of rural dwellers who have quit the land to work in city factories.
'Migrant workers, who have made a major contribution to China's economic boom, are still seriously under-represented in the ACFTU, and their legitimate rights can easily be overlooked and sometimes breached,' said Dong Baohua , a professor at the East China University of Political Science and Law and an expert on labour law.
'The fact that it's the first time for the trade union's national congress to have migrant-worker delegates speaks volumes,' he said.
