The leader of the largest US labour organisation said on Monday he would travel to China next month for a meeting to urge Wal-Mart and other multinationals operating there to honour basic workers' rights. John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO, told reporters his trip would be the first time any head of the 13-million-member labour affiliation visited China, which has become a major manufacturing rival to the United States.
The AFL-CIO and labour unions from Japan, Hong Kong, Canada and several European countries will use the December 13-14 meeting sponsored by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development to "shine the spotlight" on guidelines the group of rich countries has set for corporate behaviour, he said.
Those impose an obligation on companies from OECD member countries - such as the United States, Japan and major European nations - to "step up and take responsibility for how their decisions affect workers world-wide," Sweeney said.
The meeting will bring Chinese government officials, multinational corporate executives and labour leaders together for the first time to discuss labour conditions in China.
"Some of the world's largest corporations, like Wal-Mart, invest heavily in China, employing millions of China's workers. But in many cases, the workplace standards are so low that the human cost is enormous," Sweeney said.
More than 20 multinationals, including Wal-Mart, have been invited, but there is not a final list of which companies will attend, AFL-CIO officials said.
Wal-Mart announced recently it would allow its workers in China to set up a labour union. That decision appears limited to an estimated 20,000 employees who work in the company's retail operations there, said Barbara Shailor, director of the AFL-CIO's international department.