China's Unions Initiate Program For Migrant Workers

News from a teleconference of the All China Federation of Trade Unions is that ACFTU will initiate a national campaign to offer aid to more than 10 million migrant workers.

Of these workers, five million are expected to receive employment assistance and another five million to receive support in rights protection and living. In addition, ACFTU will also encourage the forming of trade unions and add more than five million new migrant worker members to trade union membership.

According to Chinese media, there were up to 230 million migrant workers in China at the end of 2008. As a result of the global financial crisis, over 20 million of these migrant workers had lost their jobs and needed to be reemployed after the Chinese Spring Festival.

So far, ACFTU has decided to allocate a certain percentage of its poverty elimination fund to help migrant workers to find employment and provide for their subsistence. Meanwhile, it has asked its affiliates at various levels to enlarge their investment and arrange special funds to assist migrant workers.

Sun Chunyan, vice chair of ACFTU, said that trade unions of all levels should make full use of their resources and make innovations in training practices to offer employment training for the migrant workers. In addition, 100 national trade union employment training centers should be set up this year with ten pilot projects established in provinces with the largest number of migrant workers.

At present, there are up to 3,096 aid centers in China at levels higher than local counties.