Wal-Mart's anti-union bastion is crumbling in China as once again a store is unionised

One by one, China's Wal-Mart stores seem to go union. Within a few days time, the three first ACFTU trade union locals have been created, and more of them are surely in the pipeline. The process started with a statement by ACFTU President Wang Zhaoguo (left), who pointed at Wal-Mart as a particularly bad example when it comes to respecting the right of workers to unionise.

Wang also said that special legislation may be needed to ensure that also foreign enterprises allow the All-China Federation of Trade Unions ACFTU to establish union locals. Now it seems that Wal-Mart has caved in and that its workers have been able to set up their ACFTU union locals themselves.

The third union in a Chinese Wal-Mart was established in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu Province. Today's China Daily reports that the 31 new union members elected their first trade union committee. Wu Yinzheng, a 22 year old middle manager, was elected president.

According to the newspaper, Wu vowed in the election that the committee would safeguard the legal rights and interests of employees according to the laws of the country, and try to maintain a smooth relationship between employees and employers.

Xu Deming, vice-president of the ACFTU, told China Daily that trade unions, organized on employees' own volition, can safeguard the economic, political and cultural rights of workers and also help "lubricate" the relationship between employees and employers.

Wal-Mart workers are organised in many countries where the company is present, such as the United Kingdom, Argentina, Brazil and Japan. Recently, the company has decided to leave both Germany and Korea, where it has failed to compete successfully with both local and multinational competitors. In China, Wal-Mart lags far behind multinational market leader Carrefour.