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Trade union assigned to local company
Time: 2007-01-04
City: Shenzhen
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NEARLY 120 workers have joined a trade union established unilaterally at Shenzhen’s largest Sino-foreign joint venture Foxconn — maker of Apple’s iPods.
Despite years of negotiations, the Taiwan-invested company had failed to establish its own trade union and its work practices, involving workers fainting on their feet, led to a messy lawsuit with a local newspaper last year.
Foxconn, which employs at least 200,000 workers, had not established a trade union despite years of negotiations even though Chinese law does not require management’s approval. A trade union can be established in any enterprise in China with a minimum of 25 workers.
Altogether 118 Foxconn employees joined the union Sunday which was assigned to Foxconn by the general trade union of Shenzhen. No one from the company’s management attended the group’s inaugural meeting, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported Monday.
“This is an innovative move,” said Duan Xinqing, a local trade union official who represents the newly established union. “It will help promote the protection of workers’ rights in other foreign-funded and private businesses.”
Duan said the group will rent an office in Longhua District, where Hongfujin Precision Industry Co. — the largest Foxconn facility, is located.
He said the trade union local will recruit more members among Foxconn employees even if Foxconn sets up its own trade union as it has been promising to do.
A spokesman from Foxconn said the company had planned to set up its own trade union in January. “We started making preparations in November,” said Liu Zhongxian. “But I was not aware the city trade union was about to assign one.”
The city trade union says it has been trying to persuade Foxconn to set up a trade union since 2004 but it just never happened. The two sides agreed in 2006 that a union needed to be established before the end of the year.
The China Business News reported June 15 that many of Foxconn’s workers had to work standing for 12 hours a day and some fainted with fatigue.
In early July, Foxconn filed a lawsuit against the two journalists who wrote the report, demanding 30 million yuan (US$3.75 million) in compensation.
The company slashed its defamation claim to just one yuan in August and dropped the lawsuit altogether in September.
Foxconn and the newspaper then released a joint statement saying they would apologize to each other and collaborate to protect workers’ rights and contribute to building a harmonious society.
(Source: Xinhua) Editor: Jenny Du