THE CHINESE UNIONIZE WAL-MART 2006

The high-rise Beijing headquarters of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) on 30/1/2007, I asked Ms Guo Chen from the Grass-Roots Organization and Capacity Building Department to go through their steps of unionizing Wal-Mart. Why? The retailer Wal-Mart is the largest anti-union company in the world. The China union breakthrough is a significant achievement. The ACFTU reputation was it unionized top-down with management approval. Arguably Wal-Mart was different, bottom up. Does this herald a shift from the unique Chinese servicing model to an organizing model of unionism? Can the ACFTU be an effective collective bargaining voice for Chinese workers? How does the Australian labor movement engage with the ACFTU? continue reading