About 62 million farmer-turned workers in China, or more than half of the total, had joined trade unions by the end of last month, said vice chairman of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions Sun Chunlan on Thursday.

Trade unions across the country have taken measures to enroll more farmer-turned workers in recent years so that their interests and rights were better protected, said Sun.

Thirty-two million farmer-turned workers have been insured against industrial injury and 27 million had been covered in medical insurance by the end of July, Sun said.

There were 23 million farmer-turned workers in China's trade unions at the end of 2005.

The formation of trade unions in the Wal-Mart outlets in China last year was a major breakthrough in expanding trade unions for better protection of workers' rights in overseas-funded companies in China.

(Xinhua News Agency October 19, 2007)