Wal-Mart Agrees to Unionization in China. Unionization of American stores? FORGET IT!

I found this off The New York Times:

SHANGHAI, Aug. 9--After years of fighting unionization efforts at its stores, Wal-Mart, the worldÂ’s largest retailer, said today that it would work closely with Chinese officials to establish labor unions at all of its outlets here.

Wal-Mart said it would form an alliance with the government-backed All China Federation of Trade Unions because it wanted to create “an effective and harmonious way of facilitating the establishment of grassroots unions” at its stores.

The announcement came less than two weeks after Wal-Mart employees established their first union in China, the first time that a union had ever been formed at a Wal-Mart store. Since then, four other Wal-Mart stores in China have also formed unions, according to the government union officials.

So Wal-Mart is going to allow its stores in China to be unionized. However, back here in the United States:

Forming a union at Wal-Mart stores, which have been plagued by labor disputes in recent years, has proved incredibly difficult. For instance, the AFL-CIO has tried but failed to set up unions at Wal-Mart stores in the United States.

You have just got to love Wal-Mart's hypocrisy here.

Of course, Chinese unions are not like the unions in the U.S. As the NY Times story points out:

Exactly how the unions are being formed and who has control of them is still unclear, and some experts doubt the unions now being formed at Wal-Mart will engage in collective bargaining negotiations with the company.

Liu Kaiming, director of the Institute of Contemporary Observation, a labor rights organization based in Shenzhen, applauded the Wal-Mart announcement today but questioned whether it would lead to significant change.

"“I don'’t see any bargaining power in the unions in China," Mr. Liu said. "“The function of Chinese unions is to urge workers to participate in the work, to care about their welfare and to organize recreational activities for them."”

You could almost say that Chinese unions are more like worker's organizations that make sure are conforming to the norms of Chinese society and union itself. The Chinese unions do not engage in negotiations with Wal-Mart executives on such issues of wages, benefits, workplace environment--issues that American labor unions constantly clash with over company executives. It is no wonder that Wal-Mart would happily allow Chinese unions into their stores.

I guess the big dispute between the Chinese unions and Wal-Mart executives would be where to have the Wal-Mart company picnic in China?