[Shadow_Group] WalMart in China

[shadowgroup-l at lists.resist.ca]

WalMart in China

FROM: http://worldaroundyou.com/item/212<http://worldaroundyou.com/item/212>
"The signs all over the store proclaiming Everyday Low
Prices look the same (except that they're printed in
Chinese), as do the neatly dressed "associates"
patrolling the selling floor. Busy shoppers plucking
bargains ranging from music CDs to shoes to fresh bean
curd have the same determined look about them. And one
other thing about Wal-Mart in China is familiar, too:
The company's labor problems are making headlines. 

To be sure, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions
(ACFTU), which has launched a public relations
campaign against Wal-Mart over the firm's refusal to
let its Chinese workers unionize, does not much
resemble unions in the United States (where Wal-Mart
is the target of almost forty lawsuits alleging forced
overtime without pay; a class-action lawsuit claiming
gender discrimination; and, most recently, charges by
federal prosecutors that the company has violated
immigration laws by hiring undocumented workers). It
is, rather, a virtual extension of the Communist Party
and the government, and the fight with the antiunion
Wal-Mart does as much to showcase the labor group's
own shortcomings as those of the corporation. 

The labor federation is threatening to sue Wal-Mart
unless the US company agrees to establish unions in
its stores. Wal-Mart, for its part, maintains that
officials in the central government have assured the
company that it's not required to do so. Which seems a
bit odd, because Article 10 of China's Trade Union Law
clearly states that a union "shall be set up" in any
enterprise with twenty-five or more workers. The
explanation for the apparent contradiction may be that
the government's desire for foreign investment and
jobs trumps any concern for workers' rights. That
wouldn't be surprising in the Chinese environment,
where strikes are forbidden and the official labor
grouping actively supports the government's efforts to
block the rise of independent unions."





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