SHANGHAI, April 9 — A year after Wal-Mart unionized all its stores in China under pressure from the government, McDonald’s is cooperating with China’s large state-controlled union to allow more unions in its 670 outlets here.þþA McDonald’s spokesman said today that the company is now working with union officials to help establish a union at its stores in southern Guangdong Province, one of the countries wealthiest regions.þþThe announcement comes nearly two weeks after a state-controlled newspaper in Guangdong reported that some McDonald’s, KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants in Guangdong were violating the law by paying employees less than the minimum wage and denying some workers full-time benefits.þþOfficials at McDonald’s and Yum Brands, which operates nearly 2,000 KFC and Pizza Hut outlets in China, each denied that their stores violated the law.þþBut Guangdong labor authorities quickly announced an investigation into the matter, and the country’s largest state-run union, the All China Federation of Trade Unions, criticized McDonald’s and Yum for “underpaying” their workers.þþOne trade union official said today that McDonald’s had recently begun making efforts to work with union organizers and had even circulated information within some of its Chinese stores about unions.þþA McDonald’s spokesman said today the fast-food outlet already has unions in some of its Chinese stores and that even before the pay allegations arose, the company had been cooperating with the All China Federation of Trade Unions in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong Province.þþ“Since November of last year, McDonald’s China has been in productive discussions with the Guangzhou City union officials, making progress in setting up a union branch,” the company said in a statement issued today.þþA Yum Brands official in Shanghai did not respond to an interview request today.þþThe effort to form unions in multinational corporations here is one of the latest labor developments in a country where economic growth is sizzling hot but workers are beginning to complain more publicly about unfair work practices.þþWhile unions have been around for a long time here, mostly in state-owned companies, experts say they have traditionally been weak in China. þþFor instance, they have not been known to challenge management or to bargain for higher pay for employees. More often than not, experts say, the unions have been used by management to coordinate employee activities.þþBut recently, union leaders have promised to fight for workers. And last year, the country’s biggest union won a huge victory by forcing Wal-Mart to allow unions in all 62 of its stores here.þþNow, the All China Federation of Trade Unions says its goal by the end of this year is to have unions active in 70 percent of the foreign-invested companies operating here.þþ“The laws, such as the union law and the labor law, rule that workers have a right to unionize, and no one should intervene,” said Li Jianming, director of the international affairs department at the All China Federation of Trade Unions in Beijing.þþOne indication of the union’s growing power in China is its role in helping prepare a new draft labor law, which is expected to pass some time this year. þþThe new labor law could give unions greater power in a country where workplace abuse is rampant.þþAnd that prospect is creating tension between American and European multinationals and the country’s labor leaders and labor rights activists.þþUnion leaders insist China needs stronger laws on its books to protect workers, particularly low-wage migrant workers who often work seven days a week and rarely get benefits.þþLawyers for many big foreign companies, however, say China’s labor laws are already sufficient, but there has been little enforcement of the existing laws, partly because of bribery, corruption and the country’s weak legal system.þþEven without a new labor law, however, foreign retailers and factory owners are facing growing pressures from labor rights activists and Chinese and foreign media outlets that are now regularly investigating labor conditions here and publicizing their findings, often to the embarrassment of big companies.þþLast year, for example, a pair of journalists exposed poor working conditions at a company backed by Taiwan investors that makes iPods in China. þþWal-Mart suppliers have been the target of countless investigations. And also last year, a riot broke out at a toy maker that supplies Disney, McDonald’s Mattel and other big brand names because of poor working conditions, according to labor rights activists.þþIn McDonald’s recent case, a team of Chinese newspaper journalists went undercover, posing as workers, to get inside several McDonald’s and Yum Brands restaurants in Guangdong Province. þþThe newspaper reported that McDonald’s and KFC sometimes refused to sign labor contracts with some workers, and that other employees were forced to work up to 10 hour shifts. þþSome workers, the newspaper said, were paid only about 52 cents an hour when the region’s labor authorities require big city employers to pay about 95 cents an hour.þþ
Source: NY Times
