TNAG-0383-FCO40-429-Trade-unions-and-industrial-relations-in-Hong-Kong-1973 — Page 23

1

CONFIDENTIAL

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

London SW1

30

fill

P B Williams Esq Colonial Secretariat HONG KONG

31

Telephone 01-

Your reference

Our reference

HKK 5/16

Date

24 August 1973

Dear Peter,

HONG KONG LABOUR TROUBLES AND THE TRADE UNIONS

1. The LIC assessment for the period 12 June to 9 July reported that there were currently a number of labour/

management disputes in progress in Hong Kong. We have ourselves noticed from newspapers' reports that there has been an increase in industrial unrest and we thought it would be worthwhile taking a look at the current strengths of the main Trade Union groups.

2. The reports of the Registrar of Trade Unions in Hong Kong show that there has been a marked rise in the strength of the FTU, while support for the TUC affiliated unions has remained more or less static. There has been an increase of over 21,000 in paid-up Trade Union membership in the 12 months between December 1971 and December 1972, and almost all of these new members have been recruited by the FTU. The combined paid-up membership of FTU affiliated unions and unions friendly to the FTU is now 129,000, almost equal to the total paid-up trade union membership in Hong Kong in 1966. This is despite the serious setbacks that the Left-Wing Unions suffered in 1967 when, during the period of confrontation, many of their members in the Public Utilities were dismissed. The table below sets out the position with regard to the FTU and TUC Trade Unions. Although we have no breakdown for the different groups in 1966 the total paid-up membership was given as 131,306.

Year ending 31 December

FTU affiliated unions

Unions friendly towards FTU

TUC affiliated unions

Unions friendly towards TUC

1966

1971

S

1972 94,189 108,542

15,280 26,412 26,959

20,466

4,487

4,479

28,583

29,133

Totals:

131,306

168,951

189,579

Unions classified as neutral

or independent

CONFIDENTIAL

D

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