A US labour union and a branch of the mainland's government-backed union have signed a co-operative agreement, said to be the first formal relationship between unions from the two countries.
The Los Angeles County Federation of Labour, an arm of the American Federation of Labour and Congress of Industrial Organisations (AFL-CIO), signed an agreement with the Shanghai Trade Union Council on Thursday, a spokeswoman for the Shanghai union said yesterday.
The agreement would, in part, allow the US union to offer assistance to the mainland union in organising workers at multinational corporations in Shanghai, the LA union said shortly before the agreement was signed.
Shanghai is a centre of foreign investment on the mainland: more than 150 multinational companies have set up regional headquarters in the city. The central government has pushed foreign companies, including retail giant Wal-Mart, to set up unions in their mainland subsidiaries.
The agreement establishes formal relations between the two unions and aims to 'strengthen worker rights and to improve the conditions of workers in our countries', according to a copy.
More specifically, the unions will exchange delegations and co-operate on research and establishing union branches. It was the first agreement of its kind between a US Central Labour Council - a local branch of the AFL-CIO - and its mainland equivalent, said the LA union, which has 800,000 members.
The Shanghai Trade Union Council is a branch of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.