(Financial Times) -- Foxconn, the contract manufacturer whose biggest customer is Apple, is preparing genuinely representative labour union elections in its factories in China for the first time, a powerful sign of the changes in the workshop of the world demanded by an increasingly restive workforce. This would be the first such exercise at a large company in China, where labour unions have traditionally been controlled by management and local government. Foxconn is the country's largest private sector employer with 1.2m mainland workers. The Taiwanese company, the world's largest contract maker of electronics, said that the new election process would see a larger representation of junior employees and no management involvement.
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Foxconn preparing representative labor union elections in China factories for first time
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Foxconn says elections will include more junior employees, no management involvement.
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Move is in response to frequent worker protests, soaring labour costs
"The process through which @placeholder's current labour union representatives were chosen was not democratic because there was no open and transparent nomination of candidates, and it is not representative because more than half of the committee members are from management," said one person working on the election plans.