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)