labor - Illegal migrant associations force trade union into action

The official Chinese trade union ACFTU has been forced to expand its activities under the pressure of illegal migrant associations that have tried to protect the migrant workers’ rights, the official newswire Xinhua writes today in a pick-up from the China Daily.
Traditionally the ACFTU, the only allowed trade union in China, would only focus on cities and urban workers. Unlike trade unions in other countries, the Chinese union does seldom engage into collective agreements and would mostly organize the annual company trip in exchange for a few percent of the payroll. It would have no presence outside the cities, among migrant workers or within private companies.
But “the backbone of China’s manufacturing and construction industries” haven taken action to protect their rights, as not paying migrant workers became an almost national tradition in China. Last year the central government tried to address this problem, especially after millions of migrants workers in Guangdong and Fujian decided not to return to their jobs.
“To have their plight noticed and addressed, some migrant workers have resorted to violence of suicide attempts to attract the attention of the public and the authorities, Xinhua says. But they have also set up organizations to protect their rights that are technically illegal in China. “These, to a certain extent, perform some of the function that a formal trade union,” the remarkable article continues, almost condoning its activities. “For example, in labour dispute, they negotiate pay or other issues with the employer.”
As those organizations have no legal basis, they cannot use legal means to protect the workers they represent.
Since 2003 the ACFTU is trying to fill up the legal gap it has ignored for decades and expands its activities to the country side. In for example Yiwu, a trading place in booming Zhejiang province, the ACFTU set up a legal assistance center to help migrant workers.
The article says that the illegal organizations have disappeared where the official union took action, but getting a real assessment is still very hard. The focus of the new central government on rural prosperity seems to have profound implications for the trade unions in China and the way they deal with migrant workers.

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