Wal-Mart workers in China form first union

[deadparrot]

BEIJING (AFP) - US retail giant Wal-Mart Stores saw its first trade union formed for workers at one its 60 shops in China where it started doing business in 1996.

Establishment of the union was the initiative of some 30 Wal-Mart employees in the southeast province of Fujian, Xinhua news agency said Saturday.

For the past two years the world's biggest retailer had resisted efforts to set up local unions, which are all affiliated with the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) which was established by the ruling Communist Party and claims some 150 million members.

Wal-Mart has always maintained its employees were free to set up unions if they wished and insisted it was "in total conformity with Chinese law".

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/chinausretailwalmartlabourcompany

[w4rma]

1. How long until Walmart shuts the doors on this place too?

Then again, maybe they can't shut the doors on this place, since their whole buisness model is based on manufacturing in China.

[merwin]

3. They can shut down this one store.

That's what they do in the USA

[China_cat]

4. And then watch their Chinese suppliers

refuse to ship goods to them? I don't think so.

[merwin]

5. Wal-Mart buys so much from those Chinese suppliers that they would never

think of halting shipments to them.

[China_cat]

6. I wouldn't count on the Chinese

working on the American model. I do believe the Chinese would have no problem holding their goods to force WalMart to pay them more.

[merwin]

7. The problem with China is that the labor in these factories is so cheap

because they do not have to worry about things like unions or workers asking for fair wages. Personally, I see the factory owners agreeing with Wal-Mart on this.

There's a reason Wal-Mart buys from these guys, and it's not because of their highly paid skilled workers...

[Hekate]

2. Excellent. I hope it catches on. nt.

[lovuian]

8. I'm proud of them awesome

before America