Wal-Mart's China restructuring plan falters as unions step in [CFP]

If Yang left the company, he would only get about 13,000 yuan as compensation, he said.

He led another 11 colleagues to the city's municipal federation of trade unions last Monday for assistance.

"We invited the general managers of four chain stores in the city to our office immediately and expected them to negotiate with the executives on equal terms," said Yang Fengzhi. "We don't think it's right for the company to announce such a decision without consulting the employees," she said. The organization wanted the managers to consider halting the plan.

She also contacted her counterparts in Dalian in northeastern Liaoning Province and Shenzhen in southern Guangdong Province. The trade unions in these cities were also communicating with local Wal-Mart officials.

The trade union of Wal-Mart played a positive role in helping settle the issue, said a spokesman of the Federation of Trade Unions in Shenzhen, the headquarters of Wal-Mart in China.

"The Shenzhen federation will hold a meeting Tuesday to give information about the issue to all the chairmen of Wal-Mart trade union branches. We hope the trade unions can do a good job in keeping stability and development of the enterprise," he said.

On July 29, 2006, workers of Wal-Mart's Jinjiang Store in Quanzhou City, Fujian Province, held their first membership meeting after the trade union was set up. It marked the establishment of the first union in the world's largest supermarket chain in China.

But the restructuring issue was the first time the local trade unions were involved in Wal-Mart's affairs, according to Yang Fengzhi.

Wal-Mart runs 121 supercenters, three Sam's Club outlets, two Neighborhood Markets and 101 Trust-Mart chain stores in China, employing more than 70,000 associates, according to the latest statistics on the company's website.

Yang Zhongtian told Xinhua Monday that he and his colleagues involved in the issue were back at work. The general manager of his chain store phoned him personally Sunday, saying he could either leave the company with compensation or come back to work as usual, with his position and salary unchanged.

"But I fear I can't work as usual," he said, adding that he was worried he might still lose his job.

(Xinhua News Agency April 21, 2009)