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PP RUEHCN RUEHGH
DE RUEHBJ #1628/01 2850855
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 120855Z OCT 06
FM AMEMBASSY BEIJING
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 9542
RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC PRIORITY
INFO RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC
RUEHSH/AMCONSUL SHENYANG 6984
RUEHGH/AMCONSUL SHANGHAI 6082
RUEHCN/AMCONSUL CHENGDU 7330
RUEHGZ/AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU 1631
RUEHIN/AIT TAIPEI 5975
RUEHHK/AMCONSUL HONG KONG 8266
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 1362

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BEIJING 021628 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT PASS USTR FOR KARESH, A. ROSENBERG, MCCARTIN 
LABOR FOR ILAB - CARTER, OWENS, HELM, ZHAO, SCHOEPFLE 
TREAS FOR OASIA/ISA-CUSHMAN 
USDOC FOR 4420/ITA/MAC/MCQUEEN 
GENEVA FOR CHAMBERLIN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB PHUM EINV PGOV CH
SUBJECT:  HUBEI'S EXPERIMENT WITH "DIRECT UNION 
ELECTIONS" 
 
(U) SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED: NOT FOR INTERNET 
DISTRIBUTION. 
 
¶1.  (SBU) SUMMARY:  The All China Federation of Trade 
Unions (ACFTU) is experimenting in Hubei Province with 
direct elections of enterprise-level union leaders, 
but the rules ensure that Communist Party 
organizations and regional ACFTU offices control the 
selection of candidates and also give regional ACFTU 
offices power to reject election results.  The program 
reflects ACFTU's recognition that its enterprise-level 
unions are weak, with a tendency to passively await 
instructions from higher-ups in the ACFTU apparatus 
rather than respond to workers.  By giving workers a 
say in selecting their representatives, the program is 
meant to make ACFTU unions more energetic and 
proactive.  However, there is no sign that the Hubei 
ACFTU is rethinking its conflicted mandate to promote 
both workers interests and stability in production. 
At the same time, by providing detailed provincial 
guidance that inserts regional ACFTU offices and the 
Party into enterprise-level union elections, ACFTU has 
made the emergence of genuinely worker-controlled 
unions more difficult.  End Summary. 
 
¶2.  (SBU)  In July 2005, the Hubei provincial branch 
of the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) 
issued a circular on strengthening direct elections of 
enterprise-level union leaders, and detailed guidance 
on how to carry out such elections on a pilot basis. 
Laboff met with Hubei ACFTU officials on September 28, 
2006 to discuss Hubei's experiment in promoting union 
elections. 
 
¶3.  (SBU)  Article 9 of China's Trade Union Law 
provides that enterprise-level union leaders be 
"democratically elected," but such elections rarely 
take place.  Union leaders are generally appointed 
through a process of consultation between employers 
and higher level (city or county-wide) ACFTU 
officials.  Legal prohibitions on management personnel 
or their relatives serving as company union leaders 
are widely ignored throughout Cina. 
 
¶4.  (SBU)  Hubei ACFTU General Secretar Tan Biyuan 
told Laboff that the election promotion policy arose 
in response to the provincial government's call for 
initiatives to promote a "harmonious society" in 
keeping with Central Government policy.  Tan said 
ACFTU wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to 
promote democratization within its unions, and combat 
ACFTU's tendency to act as a "top-down" organization. 
The effort started with 50 enterprises in 2004, and 
expanded to 477 mostly small- and medium-sized non- 
state-owned enterprises after ACFTU published its 
election regulations in July 2005.  Tan stressed that 
ACFTU's notion of democratization did not mean 
unlimited democracy.  He said union work must be in 
line with Party leadership, but that grass-roots union 
members should participate actively in union work and 
be free to express themselves within the union.  He 
said ACFTU is still exploring how to accommodate 
democratization. 
 
¶5.  (SBU)  Despite its numerous references to 
democracy, ACFTU's guidance on union elections 
contains some highly undemocratic elements.  Election 
procedures are democratic and straight-forward, but 
elections are to be managed by "election working 
groups" made up of officials from local Party 
organizations and from higher levels of the ACTFU. 
There are several methods for selecting candidates, 
including self-nomination, but according to Tan, 
"election working groups" play a powerful consultative 
role in assessing whether candidates have the required 
 
BEIJING 00021628  002 OF 002 
 
 
qualifications.  The first qualification listed in the 
election guidance is that candidates "diligently carry 
out the Party's direction and policies."  Implementing 
measures for the pilot election program also require 
higher ACFTU organizations to approve the results of 
union elections within an enterprise. 
 
¶6.  (SBU)  Tan and others said they are optimistic 
about the union election program, although it is still 
early in its pilot phase.  They said that newly 
elected union presidents appear to be more effective 
and enthusiastic than those selected through "non- 
democratic" means in the past.  Tan said this has led 
to greater interest in the union among workers.  Tan 
added that elected union leaders require a lot of 
training because they do not know how the union 
functions, and in some cases, ACFTU has had trouble 
with employers who do not want to provide union 
leaders with the time, space and resources required to 
conduct union work, although it is required by law. 
When asked by Laboff how far ACFTU was willing to go 
in its democratization, neither Tan nor any of the 
other ACFTU officials had any response beyond hoping 
to organize more unions and promote the use of 
collective contracts.  ACFTU did not indicate any 
plans to make greater use of collective bargaining to 
agree upon contract terms.  With respect to wages, Tan 
said that ACFTU and employers generally follow basic 
guidelines issued by the Ministry of Labor and Social 
Affairs. 
 
¶7.  (SBU)  Comment: That ACFTU recognizes the weakness 
of its enterprise-level unions, and sees greater 
participation by workers in choosing their union 
representatives as a solution is a positive 
development, and may result in marginally more active 
unions.  It falls far short, however, of progress on 
freedom of association, and the Hubei ACFTU shows no 
interest in making increased use of its already 
significant powers under Chinese law to promote 
workers' rights and interests.  Nor is it rethinking 
its conflicted mandate to protect both workers rights 
and "stability" in production.  At the same time, by 
providing detailed provincial guidance that inserts 
regional ACFTU offices and the Party into enterprise- 
level union elections, ACFTU has made the emergence of 
genuinely worker-controlled unions more difficult. 
 
RANDT