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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. Some of the failure is attributed by the TUC to unnecessary restrictions in the Hong Kong Trade Union Ordinance on such
matters as federation of unions and the employment of paid
officials: but the Hong Kong Government have maintained that practice in these respects is more liberal than the letter of the law suggests. We suspect that deeper 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 cooperation 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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