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V. Denial of Independent Trade Unions and Collective Bargaining

Chinese law does not recognize the right of workers to organize and form trade unions outside the state-affiliated All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU),¹⁷⁹ and this in turn exacerbates the exploitation of migrant construction workers in Beijing.  The Trade Union Law of the People’s Republic of China explicitly links the role of the AFCTU to government policies directed at “the development of China’s socialist modernization.”¹⁸⁰ The ACFTU’s chairman, Wang Zhaoguo, is also vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s parliament, the National People’s Congress.¹⁸¹

[Chinese] workers have the right to join and organize unions, but must be part of the sole nationwide labor union, the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) which must support the Communist Party. China's labor laws do not clearly specify that workers have to represent workers in the collective bargaining process, and under China's constitution workers do not have the legal right to strike.¹⁸²

The Trade Union Law’s prohibition of any labor union activity outside the AFCTU has been criticized by international labor organizations as an unfair limitation on workers’ right to organize. The International Labor Organization describes the ACFTU’s role as sole trade union in China as “a system of trade union monopoly [which] limits the right of workers to form and join organizations of their own choice.”¹⁸³ 

Workers’ rights to freedom of association and collective bargaining, including the right to organize unions for the protection of their interests, are guaranteed by international human rights law, and are specifically protected under article 8 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights to which China is a party.¹⁸⁴

Article 6 of China’s Trade Union Law appoints the ACFTU to “represent and safeguard the rights and interests of employees…through equal negotiation and collective contract system.”¹⁸⁵ However, the former International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) describes the ACFTU’s close links to the Chinese government and the policies of the Chinese Communist Party as contrary to the independent nature of free trade unions.¹⁸⁶ The former ICFTU has described the Trade Union Law’s specification of ACFTU responsibilities¹⁸⁷ as a serious handicap to the organization’s ability to adequately work for the interests of workers and effectively renders the ACFTU “not a genuine trade union.”¹⁸⁸

The utility of the ACFTU in the development and protection of legally-stipulated rights for migrant construction workers is particularly questionable in light of official data which indicates that only 30 percent of such laborers have union membership.¹⁸⁹ While the ACFTU announced in 2006 that it had set a goal of unionizing 70 percent of all of China’s migrant workers by 2008,¹⁹⁰ even accomplishing that ambitious goal will still leave a full 30 percent of all migrant workers, a minimum of 30 million people, without union protection.