labor - Trade union membership on the rise

The Economist summerizes the change China's trade union is undergoing. There is not so much new apart from the figures they come up with indicating a suddent spike in the membership of trade unions, after it had been dropping for a while.
Figures in China have to be taken with a pinch of salt, but at least the intention to enhance the trade union seems important.
The Economist:

Some companies are worried. A new labour-contract law, which may be passed within the next year or so, contains provisions that critics (inside both foreign and Chinese enterprises) say could give unions a greater say in company decision-making. In a recent survey of its members by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, about half the consumer-goods companies questioned said they had negative or very negative views of the law as currently drafted. Revisions are expected.

However, there is little likelihood that trade unions in China will acquire the clout that some of their counterparts exercise in Western countries. For all its Marxist pretensions, the party is still more interested in business than in the grievances of the proletariat.