Guo Wencai, director of the Grass Roots Organization Set-up Division of the All China Federation of Trade Unions, said at a press conference that multinational companies would not be allowed to delay or hinder employees in the setting up of trade unions, or have two standards on human rights issues.
Guo said that though much progress has been made in pushing multinational companies to establish trade unions in China, there are still some multinational companies that have not set up trade unions, and these companies include Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, and Marubeni.
Guo says some multinational companies continue to say that they respect human rights and fulfill their social responsibilities, but they adopt different human rights standards in China by taking various steps to delay or stop the setting-up of trade unions. Guo said the ACFTU will not allow this.
ACFTU says it will reinforce its activities in 2009 and put more pressure on multinational companies to set up trade unions so as to better protect Chinese employees' interests.
