CONFIDENTIAL
Foreign and Commonwealth Office London SW1
J W Sweetman Esq Colonial Secretariat HONG KONG
LAM
Telephone 01-
3
RF REC.
Your reference
12 MALINS CR 3/3051/70
Our reference HKK 5/28
Date
12 May 1975
Duw
Зайту
RE
TRADE UNIONS AND INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS IN HONG KONG
1.
In your letter of 1 April to me you set out the latest
situation on the local labour scene.
2.
We are most grateful for the care you have obviously taken in preparing such a comprehensive report. The marked decrease in strikes and industrial action is perhaps not altogether surprising in the present economic climate in Hong Kong, but it does, at the same time, say a great deal for the common sense and discipline of the Hong Kong workers and, as you point out, it is clear that severance pay legislation was introduced just in time.
3.
As
We have noted with interest that the trade unions affiliated to the (pro-Peking) KFTU continue to make headway. their union leadership is clearly under orders not to provoke industrial trouble at present, this does not seem to be having any marked effect on industrial relations now. But we note that the HKFTU is now a formidable weapon in the hands of Peking, should their policy towards Hong Kong undergo any major change. Happily this seems unlikely in present circumstances.
The National Executive Committee of the Labour Party take an active and critical interest in the Hong Kong trade union scene and recently the Secretary of State was made aware of the unhappiness of some at what they consider to be the ineffectiveness of the trade unions, particularly those in the shipping industry. I shall be writing to you soon about all this; but meanwhile reports such as the one I have just been reading are invaluable.
Yours ever,
Laverence
PL O'Keeffe
Hong Kong & Indian Ocean Dept.
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