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information than, say, Members of Parliament. In his view
LegCo is more analogous to a Cabinet, or body of Ministers, than to a Legislature on the Westminster model. Until there is representation from organised labour, or at least a personality recognized as a credible spokesman for the workers' interests, it would be difficult for the Secretary of State to convince the TUC and NEC that
proper account is taken of working class interests.
20. At the non-governmental level, a conspicuous feature of Hong Kong is the weakness and fragmentation of the trade union movement and the absence of collective bargaining on any significant scale. Total trade union membership is only 15.4% of the working population. This is in part due to the fragmentation of industry: out of some 25,000 establishments in 1974 only 118 employed more than 500 people and no less than 15,000 employed less than 10. It is also in part due to differing political allegiances, with pro Communist trade unions representing nearly three quarters of the total membership (231,000); pro-Taiwan unions representing 37,000 and politically non-aligned unions mainly in the public sector representing 49,000. Various attempts have been made by
the British and international trade union movements to stimulate
the growth of trade unionism and collective bargaining in Hong Kong but without success.
We suspect that deep ́sociological, economic and political factors militating against normal growth and activities of a trade union movement are at work and a study is being commissioned to investigate matters further. The study will need to be low-profile and academic in character if we are to get the co-operation of industrialists in Hong Kong; and the person appointed to carry it out will need to be acceptable to both sides of industry here if it is to carry
conviction.
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