A KFC outlet in central China's Hubei Province has had two trade unions since May this year and the argument is intensifying over which one deserves to stay.

 

A group of mostly part-time employees of the KFC outlet in Shiyan City clubbed together to set up a trade union on May 24 this year. The city trade union federation adopted it as one of its members.

 

On the same day, the provincial head office of Yum Brands Inc, owner of KFC and Pizza Hut, announced the establishment of its provincial trade union, meaning that every KFC outlet in Hubei automatically had a trade union branch.

 

In the Shiyan outlet, the manager was named as the trade union leader and the union only accepted full-time employees, according to a report by the China Youth Daily.

 

"The situation has reached a deadlock," said Wang Yanli, vice-president of the Federation of Trade Unions in Shiyan in a phone interview on Monday.

 

"Based on its nature, a trade union should be set up by employees instead of employers. So we can tell which one is lawful," Wang said.

 

"As far as I know, the trade union founded by the company has not recruited any members. All it has is a document from its head office," he said.

 

"The employee's trade union is currently made up of 24 members," he said.

 

The city's trade union federation began arguing with KFC about the need to set up a trade union last year.

 

The fast-food giant insisted that it had to wait for the founding of a provincial trade union and then it would set up unions for its two outlets in Shiyan.

 

According to Wang, after several months' delay from the company, the federation moved to talk with employees directly and helped those from one of the two outlets to set up a trade union.

 

The company then came to the federation and questioned the validity of some of the union's members who were student workers.

 

China's relevant regulations say that farmers, soldiers and students are not allowed to join trade unions.

 

"They joined the trade union not as students but employees. They work and receive pay so they should enjoy the rights of a worker," said Li Fuxiu, another vice-President of the federation.

 

Any company hiring more than 25 employees must have its own trade union, according to the Chinese laws.

 

The fast-food giants KFC and McDonalds came under pressure early this year following reports which said they underpaid part-time employees in Guangzhou by up to 40 percent below the local minimum wage of 1 U.S. dollar an hour.

 

Yum Brands Inc then issued a statement saying that it allowed most of its subsidiaries to join the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) and those left would handle the issue according to Chinese regulations.

 

(Xinhua News Agency July 17, 2007)