The All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) will amend its
constitution to adopt "Three Represents" as one of its guidelines
at its ongoing 14th National Congress.
The draft amendment was put forward to the congress for
discussion on Monday, where the important thought of "Three
Represents" was taken as part of the organization's guidelines,
together with Marxism, Leninism, Mao Zedong Thought and Deng
Xiaoping Theory.
"Three Represents" refers to that the Communist Party of China
always earnestly represents the development trend of China's
advanced social productive forces, the orientation of China's
advanced culture, and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming
majority of the people in China.
The CPC adopted the "Three Represents" thought as one of its
long-term guiding theories at its 16th National Congress last
year.
China's largest youth organization, the Communist Youth League
of China, and women's organization, the All-China Women's
Federation, have both amended their constitutions to incorporate
the important thought of "Three Represents" as one of their
guidelines.
The ACFTU, as the leading body of all local trade union councils
and national institutions of industrial trade unions, has 134
million members.
The draft amendment clarified that the fundamental
responsibility of Chinese trade unions is to protect the legitimate
rights and interests of laborers, which was also added to the Law
on Trade Unions in 2001.
An enterprise or institution with more than 25 employees should
set up a grassroots trade union and those with more than 200
employees can hire a full-time trade union head in a bid to develop
more grassroots trade unions, said Sun Baoshu, vice-president of
ACFTU when detailing the draft amendment.
The ACFTU should set up an auditing system on its financial work
and take part in probing accidents at the workplace in line with
the law, according to the draft amendment.
(Xinhua News Agency September 23, 2003)