The top trade union organization in China plans to unionize 60 percent of foreign companies by the end of this year, a senior union official said yesterday.

Sun Chunlan, vice-chairwoman of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, set the goal for local union leaders at a two-day working conference that ended in Beijing yesterday.

She urged local union leaders to approach companies and workers to set-up more unions and has set a target to have 80 percent of foreign companies in China unionized by the end of 2007.

She said industrial bases and high-tech industrial development zones would be targeted and the conditions of these establishments would need to be investigated before unions could be established. According to official figures, China has poor union membership in foreign companies.

By the end of 2004, China boasted about 78,000 foreign companies and 74,000 businesses financed with funds from Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan, but only 23 and 20 percent of them had union representation.

"The development of unions has been slow to emerge," Sun said.

It is estimated that there are about 20 million workers in these companies but "some workers have long hours in labour intensive positions, but still receive low pay and lack protection," Sun said.

So we need to unionize more enterprises, as it is a better way to resolve conflicts between employers and workers, she said.

She also said that unions do not exist to place restrictions on companies, but are there to help them develop healthy work practices.

"No other organizations, such as corporate welfare associations, could replace Chinese unions," she added.

Jin Jun, a lawyer with a law firm called Siway & Seaway in East China's Jiangsu Province, whose clients range from multi-nationals to small privately-owned businesses, said foreign businesses worried unions might endanger their management processes, as relations between employers and unions are widely known to be divisive.

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