Ruzhou Federation of Trade Unions has completed economic tasks for the first half of 2011 in line with the goals signed at the beginning of the year.

From this March, the union started to carry out "collective offer month" initiatives covering all enterprises in the city to thoroughly promote the work of wage collective negotiations. Currently, 769 enterprises are taking part in the initiatives, 20 signed regional wage agreements involving 526 companies, 9 industrial wage agreements involving 220 companies and 128,667 staff and workers.

The regional and industrial coverage reached 100 percent and 20 key enterprises have completed organizational system establishment, fulfilling the objectives and tasks assigned by the Pingdingshan Trade Unions.

As for dealing with labor disputes, safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of the employees, in the first six months Ruzhou Trade Unions received and handled 21 cases involving more than 80 employees. Four were group cases of labor dispute involving more than 500 employees. 18 were labor arbitration cases, of which three were settled by mediation outside the court involving 80 employees with a retrieved economic loss of 1.35 million yuan. 15 cases belonged to workplace injury compensation; three were social insurance cases together with another three involving accident investigation. These efforts have effectively safeguarded workers’ legitimate rights and interests, thus playing an active role in promoting socio-economic stability and harmony.

From January to June, Ruzhou Trade Unions has also done a great deal of works on the matter of re-employment of workers and migrant workers. 2,300 laid-off workers and migrant workers in the city received training, accounting for 76 percent of assigned objectives by the Pingdingshan Trade Unions. 50,000 yuan in microfinance were allocated, which created 32 job opportunities or startups.

As for the campaign of publicizing "trade unions, enterprises and employees" to create good public opinion, in the same period Ruzhou Trade Unions published 134 news articles in newspapers, magazines, the internet and other media, including seven of state level, 29 of provincial level, 35 of municipal level and 63 of local level. In addition, the Trade Unions achieved outstanding results in areas of establishing new internal systems, of carrying out competitions and activities to improve workers’ skills and enrich their cultural life, and of caring for workers and worker aid as well.

Edited by Fu Bo and Tania Lee