Foxconn plans Chinese union vote

Source: CNN

8:13 PM EST, Sun February 3, 2013


(Financial Times) -- Foxconn, the contract manufacturer whose biggest customer is Apple, is preparing genuinely representative labour union elections in its factories in China for the first time, a powerful sign of the changes in the workshop of the world demanded by an increasingly restive workforce.

This would be the first such exercise at a large company in China, where labour unions have traditionally been controlled by management and local government. Foxconn is the country's largest private sector employer with 1.2m mainland workers.

The Taiwanese company, the world's largest contract maker of electronics, said that the new election process would see a larger representation of junior employees and no management involvement.

"The position of chairman and 20 committee members of the Foxconn Federation of Labour Unions Committee will be determined through elections once every five years through an anonymous ballot voting process," Foxconn said in response to questions from the Financial Times.

Read more: http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/03/business/china-foxconn-union/