36
HONG KONG ANNUAL REPORT
returns, and four workers' unions and one organization of mer- chants for late transmission of accounts.
While no less than fifteen new trade unions (including one association of merchants) were registered, eight unions of workers and three other organizations were removed from the register. Six of the unions of workers were removed from the register as having ceased to exist and two dissolved; two associations of employers applied for cancellation of registration as trade unions in order to form one society, while one association of merchants became a limited company.
The year ended with 316 unions on the register, as against 312 in December 1958, the total being made up of 243 workers' unions, 63 organizations of merchants or employers and 10 mixed organizations of employers and workers.
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
Labour Organization. The number of workers' unions on the register is in excess of practical needs. Most of the trade unions in the Colony continue to be affected by political considerations. With the exception of a small number of independent unions, the majority of workers' unions are affiliated to one of the two trade union federations.
The Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions, which supports the policies of the Chinese People's Government, has sixty five affiliated unions, the majority of whose members are employed in leading shipyards and utility companies. There are in addition twenty five unions, nominally independent, which subscribe to the policy and participate in the activities of the F.T.U. During the year the F.T.U. continued its policy of providing welfare benefits not only to members of affiliated unions but also to all workers willing to accept them.
The Hong Kong and Kowloon Trades Union Council, which supports the policies of the Government of Formosa, has seventy two affiliated unions, including four mixed unions of employers and employees, with a further fifty three unions participating in its activities. The majority of the members of these unions are employed in building construction, Chinese restaurants, tea-houses, and in catering and miscellaneous services. The T.U.C. remains