在全球對工會都強烈反對，在美國也未能在公司內設立工會成功的Wal-Mart，此次在中國栽了，在中國政府的壓力下，加上自認中國市場對其極為重要，因此，該公司首次允許工會組織。工會在中國的政治性及被政府控制的性質，會對未來該公司在中國的經營造成什麼影響，相信是值得觀察的。
Wal-Mart opens door to unions
By David Barboza The New York Times
Published: August 9, 2006
After years of fighting unionization efforts at its stores, Wal- Mart the world’s largest retailer, said Wednesday that it would work closely with Chinese officials to establish labor unions at all of its outlets in the country.
Saying it wanted to create ”an effective and harmonious way of facilitating the establishment of grassroots unions,” Wal-Mart announced that it would form an alliance with the government-backed All China Federation of Trade Unions.
The announcement comes less than two weeks after Wal-Mart employees established their first union in China with the same government backing.
Four other Wal-Mart stores in China have also formed unions.
Wal-Mart’s decision to allow unions also follows years of pressure from the All China Federation of Trade Unions. It is pushing more large foreign companies here to allow unionization, which is required under Chinese law.
While unions in China do not have the history of bargaining power that unions in Europe and the United States have, the Wal-Mart announcement is still an historic and surprising step here.
The AFL-CIO, the umbrella organization of the American labor movement, has been trying but has failed to set up unions at Wal-Mart stores in the United States.
But China has become an increasingly important market for Wal-Mart, which now has about 60 retail outlets and 30,000 employees in China.
Although Wal-Mart has strongly opposed unions at its stores around the world, it said under pressure in late 2004 that if workers in China moved to unionize, the company would not stop them.
With Wal-Mart aggressively expanding its operations in China’s booming retail market, the company issued a brief statement Wednesday that seemed to echo the Chinese government’s latest propaganda campaign, which promises to build a ”harmonious society.”
The company said in the statement, entitled ”Wal-Mart Supports China’s Effort to Build a Harmonious Society,” that it would collaborate with the All China Federation because the two groups had the ”mutual aim” to establish grass-roots unions.
Some experts, however, say that little is known about how the unions are being formed and who has control of them.
Liu Kaiming, director of the Institute of Contemporary Observation, a labor rights organization based in Shenzhen, applauded the Wal-Mart announcement but questioned whether it would lead to significant change.
”I don’t see any bargaining power in the unions in China,” Liu said. ”The function of Chinese unions is to urge workers to participate in the work, to care about their welfare and to organize recreational activities for them.”
In fact, independent unions are banned in China. But the All China Federation issued a statement earlier this week, suggesting that it would be able to contend with one of the world’s biggest companies. ”If Wal-Mart union members are subjected to unfair treatment at work, unions at the national, provincial, city and district level will strive all out to protect employees’ legitimate rights,” the announcement said.
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