Unions train staff for wage deals

Trade unions in Yunnan are training their staff on how to negotiate wage increases with enterprises as consumer prices rise. Some 400 union officials have already been through the week-long training which includes courses such as negotiation tactics and skills.
Lu Zhengguo, vice-chairman of the Yunnan Federation of Trade Unions, told China Daily.com the course was designed to promote collective contract signing and to extend the negotiation mechanism to all enterprises in the province.
Lu said that with those enterprises that have not set up trade unions, local union federations should intervene to promote wage negotiations.
China’s trade union law stipulates that trade unions can sign collective contracts and conduct wage negotiations with employers on behalf of employees.
Yunnan plans to make the mechanism of collective negotiation on wages cover 40% of the enterprises in the province, which will be progressively raised until it is twice that by 2012.