Wal-Mart signs agreements with Chinese unions

US retail giant Wal-Mart has reached collective-bargaining agreements with unions in Shenyang in Liaoning province and Quanzhou, Fujian, the Financial Times reported. The agreements include pay raises of around 8% for employees in the two cities for this year and next year. Wal-Mart, which employs 48,500 people at 105 hypermarkets in China, had long fended off unionization attempts until the All-China Federation of Trade Unions won a high-profile campaign to start a union in the company’s Quanzhou store two years ago.