3.
When these factors are taken into account, together with the fact that employers have generally been hostile to trade unions, and in view of the long hours worked in Hong Kong industry, it is not surprising that lay officials found it nearly impossible to service a large multi-plant membership. The inevitable result was a proliferation of small in-plant unions, whose leaders had little time for contact with their colleagues in similar plants.
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It is thus hardly surprising that under conditions such as these, there should be, by the beginning of 1975, 160 trade unions, representing just over half of all registered trade unions, with a membership of 250. or less.
Immediate Tasks
The immediate task is to find ways of strengthening the Hong Kong trade union movement. The one obvious way of doing this is through a series of amalgamations. But, given the ideo- logical differences that exist in the framework of the move- ment this method can only be applied selectively. For ex- ample, many of the unions operating in the public service are neutral. It should be possible to encourage amalgamations of some of them into viable units, though extreme caution, even here, would have to be adopted when approaching the issue. One must not minimise the will to exist, once established, of what, to the outsider, 'may appear as paper organisations. In areas where formal amalgamations prove, impossible other avenues should be explored, if necessary on an ad hoc basis, in order to enable and encourage existing trade unions to deal with the immediate problems of workers. Some of the arrangements could be carefully defined with or without formal leadership, de- pending on the situation.
Negotiating Machinery
Trade unions in Hong Kong have been condemned for lack of activity. Yet it is apparent that for existing unions to develop into effective institutions they simply have to show a record of activity and achievement on behalf of their members.
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One important step towards achieving this objective would be to open the field of wage determination by including trade union participation which simply does not exist to any great extent at the moment. No doubt considerable difficulties would be encountered, not least from the Colony's employers. In addition the ideological divisions in the trade unions already referred to would be likely to impede progress. ever, unions in the public service ought to find it easier to co-operate if joint negotiating machineries were estab- lished on a fairly comprehensive scale. The various unions could then have one representative negotiating team. The negotiating team would be responsible for processing workers' demands and negotiating with the public authorities. Success
Continued/...
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