[Unofficial summary & title translation of original Chinese-language article, provided by Business & Human Rights Resource Centre]

'Anji Federation of Trade Unions Pushes for Direct Elections of Local Trade Union Chairmen', 7 August 2015

'This mode of “double direct elections” has enabled the workers to elect the trade union chairmen according to their own wished,’ says Li Xingang excitedly, who has just voted in the election.

Recently, the Anji Federation of Trade Unions (AFTU), Zhejiang Province, has provided guidance for the standard procedures for ‘double direct elections’, taking the Global Furniture (Zhejiang) Co., Ltd. - which was holding a trade union representative assembly - as a case to illustrate the whole process to elect a reliable trade union chairman. The AFTU has also invited trade union chairmen from 15 towns and over 30 non-state-owned enterprises to observe at the event.

It has been reported that before the assembly, the AFTU helped the company in defining the agenda of the meeting as well as the way to select representatives; it has also offered revision advice on the ‘double direct elections’ plan and requested that the opinions of all the union members should be respected. The so-called ‘double direct elections’ means that before the assembly, eight trade union committees would be elected in an election open to all the workshops; after that, at the assembly, a new seven-member trade union committee and a new chairman would be elected and announced by 120 representatives who attend the meeting. Zhang Weifeng, who was elected to be the chairman with 112 votes, said, ‘Thank you very much for your support. I am elected by you and hence I won’t let you down. I would try my best to be a trustworthy man for the workers’.

According to a person in charge from the AFTU, in order to solve the problem of the boss deciding candidates for trade unions in non-state-owned enterprises, this year, the AFTU suggests that local trade union chairmen and committees be elected directly by union members, so as to push for the popularisation, democratisation and legalisation of trade unions. This appeal has won support from workers. Wu Meiying, one of the workers, said, ‘The chairman elected by ourselves can better protect workers’ rights and encourage workers to work harder’. 

After the election, the AFTU concluded that the procedures of the meeting was normative and the agendas were reasonable, setting a good model for trade unions of non-state-owned enterprises. The AFTU thus requested that trade unions learned from this experience. Meanwhile, the whole election process would be made into a video to be spread to the whole county.