HONG KONG — Trade unions have become more active in recent times in defence of wages, conditions and democratic rights, according to leaders of the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions. Speaking to Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly on July 25, HKCTU organising secretary TAM CHUN-YIN and education officer SZE PANG-CHEUNG outlined the confederation's campaigns.
Mass workers' strikes and rallies have opposed cuts in jobs and wages. The Hong Kong administration is attacking the public sector and workers' rights.
"The HKCTU is the centre of independent trade unionism — trade unions not controlled by parties under the influence of Beijing or Taiwan", Tam said. "The main union body in Hong Kong, the Federation of Trade Unions (HKFTU), is under the control of the Communist Party of China."
The HKCTU has around 150,000 members, compared to the HKFTU's 300,000 members.
"The HKCTU's main principle is to protect the workers' 'rice bowl', jobs, justice and democracy. Unions have a responsibility to fight for democratic rights as well as economic issues", Tam said. The HKCTU's main priorities at present are to push for legislation for a minimum wage and an upper limit on working hours. Average working hours in Hong Kong are above 60 hours a week.
Tam and Sze explained that the HKCTU favours political as well as industrial action to defend Hong Kong's working class, which currently has no mass political representation.
The HKCTU is running two candidates in the September 10 Legislative Council elections, its chairperson Lau Chin-shek and its chief executive Lee Chek-yan. "The current election system guarantees the power of big business. After the handover from Britain to China in 1997, the capitalists have actually consolidated power in Hong Kong, Sze told Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly. "The wealth gap in Hong Kong is one of the worst in the world", Tam added.
BY JIM McILROY