The main slogans of the HKFTU are patriotism, solidarity, rights, welfare and participation. The group focuses on the rights and welfare of workers, supporting the workers in their negotiation with employers and to resolve labour disputes. The HKFTU also operates 5 retail outlets to provide discounts to its members in a variety of goods, and provide training, medical and other services to members at discounted rates.
The group has struggled for amendment of legislations to protect labour rights and prevent employees from exploiting loopholes in labour laws. It opposes importation of foreign labours and calls for legislation against age discrimination. Politically it adopted a pro-Government stance on many issues but has a pro-grassroot stance on livelihood and labour issues, such as demanding more measures to reduce unemployment.
From 2000 to 2004, 5 members of the HKFTU are legislators:
The World Federation of TradeUnions (WFTU) was established in the wake of the Second World War to bring together tradeunions across the world in a single international organization, much like the United Nations.
After a number of Western tradeunions left it in 1949, as a result of disputes over support for the Marshall Plan, to form the International Confederation of Free TradeUnions, the WFTU was made up primarily of state-run unions from communist countries and unions affiliated with or sympathetic to communist parties elsewhere.
It maintains its headquarters in Prague, Czech Republic but focuses now on organizing regional federations of unions in the Third World, campaigning against imperialism, racism, poverty, environmental degradation and exploitation of workers under capitalism and in defense of full employment, social security, health protection, and tradeunion rights.
Indeed, the document prescribes with no legal grounds thereto that «TradeUnion membership fees shall be paid personally by workers without deducting from their wages», thus violating the current system of collecting fees and badly infringing the employees’ right to dispose of their wages freely and at their discretion.
The true purpose of the document is to weaken TradeUnions and to hamper carrying out their mission of protecting rights and interests of working people and of combating numerous instances of lawlessness and arbitrary actions on behalf of employers and bureaucrats.
TradeUnions independence is exceptionally critical now that we are facing upcoming all-round privatization, redistribution of ownership and massive layoffs, growing wage arrears, deeper dependence of workers on their employers, especially in the cases of contract employment.
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