The Baiyun District Sanitation Workers Federation of Trade Unions was recently set up in Guangzhou.
Currently there are about 5,300 sanitation workers in Baiyun District of Guangzhou, accounting for 20% of the total number of Guangzhou, and most of them are migrant workers. The Federation will work mostly as a platform for sanitation workers to protect their own rights.
As a regional industrial trade union under the direct management of trade unions for street workers, it will have the same power in labor disputes as employers do, which will better protect the chairman of the trade union who might otherwise be fired when dealing with employers. The outcome of wage negotiations between the Federation and employers are applicable to all the sanitation companies in this region, no matter whether they have joined the Federation or not.
The working committee for the Guangzhou sanitation sector trade union will be set up by the end of December 2008, and the catering industry will be the next to establish trade unions.
