Trade Union Forum

Speech by Jin Shanwen, Vice Chairman and Member of the Secretariat of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.April 23, 2025. Brasilia, Brazil

Dear chairperson,

Friends of the BRICS trade unions,

Ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning! I am very happy to attend this BRICS Trade Union Forum and speak here. The BRICS Trade Union Forum, with the mission of enhancing the friendship among the workers of the BRICS countries, has effectively voiced the concerns of workers in emerging market countries and created a path for trade unions of developing countries to deeply participate in global labor governance. Since its establishment in 2012, it has actively performed and has been widely recognized by all BRICS countries. It has become an indispensable part of the BRICS cooperation mechanism. In today's ever-changing global situation, its importance is becoming more and more prominent. Below, I would like to introduce to you the political and economic situation in China and the work of the trade unions, and put forward the propositions of the Chinese trade unions on BRICS trade union cooperation.

1) On China's Economic and Social Development

In October 2022, the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China was held in Beijing. This congress outlined the grand blueprint for comprehensively advancing the modernization of China and achieving the great rejuvenation of the nation with a strong country. It made a "two-step" strategic arrangement, that is, to basically achieve socialist modernization by 2035; and to build a prosperous, democratic, civilized, harmonious, and beautiful modern socialist country by the middle of this century. The realization of the modernization of China is a grand goal proposed on the basis of building a moderately prosperous society in all respects. The modernization of China will not only benefit 1.4 billion Chinese people, but also make a significant contribution to world peace and development. The modernization of China will surely provide more opportunities for the development of countries around the world, add strong momentum, and bring more welfare to workers of all countries.

The realization of the modernization of China requires hard work. In order to break through various obstacles on the way forward and inject strong power and vitality into economic and social development, in July 2024, the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China was held. It made a systematic deployment for further comprehensively deepening reform and promoting the modernization of China, and introduced more than 300 reform measures. These measures are aimed at providing a strong institutional and systemic guarantee for the realization of the modernization of China as scheduled. In 2024, China's gross domestic product reached 134.9 trillion yuan, an increase of 5.0% year-on-year. The per capita disposable income of urban and rural residents increased by 5.1%, in line with the economic growth rate. 12.56 million new urban jobs were created. We are full of confidence in achieving the goals and tasks of economic and social development as scheduled and realizing the modernization of China as scheduled.

In March this year, the third session of the 14th National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China and the third session of the 14th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (hereinafter referred to as the "two sessions") were held in Beijing. Faced with the complex and changing international environment and the domestic environment facing many challenges, the key issues of this year's two sessions cover economic development, innovation-driven development, improvement of people's livelihood, rule of law construction, and further expansion of opening up. The resolutions made and measures taken around these issues will significantly enhance the people's sense of gain, happiness and security, provide strong impetus for the sustainable development of China's economy, and offer new opportunities for the global economic recovery.

2) On the Recent Situation of Chinese Trade Unions

In October 2023, the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Trade Unions was held. It comprehensively summarized the work of the past five years and made a systematic plan and deployment for future work. At present, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions and trade unions at all levels are working solidly on trade union work in accordance with the requirements of the 18th National Congress of the Chinese Trade Unions, and making contributions to the cause of the Party and the country. This includes: firmly grasping the theme of the times of the Chinese workers' movement, widely and deeply carrying out various forms of labor and skills competitions, and carrying out mass technological innovation and creation activities such as "five small" activities. It unites and mobilizes the vast number of workers to fully play the main role in comprehensively advancing the modernization of China and the great cause of national rejuvenation; it deeply promotes the reform of the construction of industrial workers, and strives to cultivate a large army of industrial workers with knowledge, skills, and innovation. It provides talent and skill support for promoting the modernization of China; it fulfills the basic duty of safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of workers and serving the workers wholeheartedly. It helps solve the urgent problems of workers and effectively enhances the sense of gain, happiness and security of the workers; it promotes the legalization, institutionalization and standardization of trade union work, uses the way of thinking and methods of the rule of law to resolve contradictions and disputes, and promotes the construction of harmonious labor relations; it deepens the reform of trade unions themselves around enhancing political, advanced and mass nature, promotes trade union work to extend to the grassroots level, and expands to the field of new employment forms. It continuously expands the coverage of trade union organizations and trade union work, and enhances the leading power, organizational power and service power of trade unions.

Founded in May 1925, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions is currently preparing for the 100th anniversary celebration series and will participate in the national model worker and advanced worker commendation held once every five years. Looking back at the century-long history, the Chinese trade unions have always been under the leadership of the Communist Party of China, promoting the development of the Chinese workers' movement, safeguarding the rights and interests of workers, and participating in economic construction and social governance. They have achieved great results and accumulated valuable experience. Looking to the future, the Chinese trade unions will continue to unite and mobilize hundreds of millions of workers to participate in the construction of the modernization of China and strive for the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation and the Chinese dream.

3) Challenges Facing BRICS Trade Unions at Present

At present, the world is undergoing a century of change at an accelerated pace. There is both the new situation of multipolarization and the dangerous situation of a "new cold war." The international balance of power is undergoing profound changes. Geopolitical conflicts are rising one after another, and protectionism and unilateralism are becoming more and more serious. The Trump administration in the United States has wantonly launched tariff wars and trade wars, making the international situation more complex and severe. Against this background, the global governance system urgently needs reform and improvement. As representatives of emerging market countries and developing countries, the status of BRICS countries in the global economic and political arena is constantly rising. Trade union organizations of BRICS countries should also play a more active and important role in global governance.

At present, trade union organizations of BRICS countries are facing many severe challenges. In terms of the global economic situation, the uncertainty of economic growth still exists. Trade frictions and debt risks are troubling the development of the economies of various countries, which directly affects the employment stability and income level of workers. In the wave of rapid development of the digital economy and artificial intelligence, new forms of labor are constantly emerging, which have brought great shocks to traditional labor laws and regulations and trade union work. The problem of safeguarding the rights and interests of workers in new forms of employment is becoming more and more prominent. They face many difficulties in terms of work stability, social security, and labor protection. How to absorb these workers as service objects of trade unions and effectively safeguard their rights and interests is an urgent problem to be solved. The imbalance of discourse power in the international labor field still exists. Some developed countries dominate the formulation of international labor rules, and the voices of emerging market countries and developing countries have not been fully reflected. This is not conducive to the development of the global labor governance system in a fair and reasonable direction. In addition, there are differences in the development levels of trade union organizations in BRICS countries, and the political and economic environments they face are also different. To a certain extent, this affects the depth and breadth of the unity and cooperation of BRICS trade unions.

4) Some Proposals for Strengthening BRICS Trade Union Cooperation

In the face of the current challenges, it is particularly important and urgent to strengthen BRICS trade union cooperation. We should continue to make efforts in the following key areas:

(1) Strengthen multilateral cooperation and enhance discourse power in international labor affairs. BRICS trade unions should unite closely, form a united front, actively voice in multilateral mechanisms such as the International Labor Organization and the G20 Labor Conference, jointly promote the formulation and improvement of international labor rules, and make them more fair and reasonable. It fully reflects the interests and demands of emerging market countries and developing countries. Through joint proposals, joint statements and other ways, we can enhance our influence in international labor affairs and break the discourse monopoly of developed countries in this field.

(2) Deepen exchanges and mutual learning to jointly cope with new challenges. Regularly hold BRICS Trade Union Forums, special seminars and other activities to have in-depth exchanges on cutting-edge issues such as new forms of employment and the impact of artificial intelligence on the labor world. Share the experiences and practices of various countries in coping with these challenges, and jointly explore solutions. Establish a BRICS trade union information sharing platform to timely convey information on labor policies and employment market dynamics of various countries, and provide strong support for trade union decision-making and work.

(3) Promote capacity building and improve the level of trade union services. Carry out cooperation in trade union cadre training, invite experts and scholars associated with trade unions of various countries to teach advanced work concepts and methods to trade union cadres, and improve their professional ability and comprehensive quality. Strengthen cooperation in workers' skill training, integrate high-quality training resources of various countries, and provide more opportunities for workers to improve their skills to help them better adapt to the needs of economic and social development. Hold BRICS workers' skill competitions to promote skill exchanges among workers of member countries and contribute to the high-quality development of BRICS countries. As a specific measure to promote this proposition, I plan to hold a BRICS Young Cadre Training Class in the second half of this year to contribute to the capacity building of BRICS trade unions.

(4) Promote the cooperation of trade unions of developing countries to achieve common development. We advocate that on the basis of the expanded BRICS Trade Union Forum, actively promote the participation of trade unions of BRICS partner countries, and strengthen cooperation with trade unions of more developing countries in the "BRICS+" mode. Expand the scope of cooperation and form a larger international trade union cooperation network. At the level of trade union work, jointly promote employment promotion, labor rights protection and other work to achieve common development and progress of workers in developing countries and enhance the status of trade union organizations of developing countries in global labor governance.

The Chinese trade unions have always attached great importance to cooperation with trade unions of BRICS countries and actively put it into practice. We adhere to the BRICS spirit of "openness, inclusiveness and win-win cooperation", actively participate in international labor affairs, and work hand in hand with trade unions of various countries to  strength to the reform of the global labor governance system with contribution of Chinese wisdom.

Looking to the future, the cooperation of BRICS trade unions has a broad prospect and great potential. Let us join hands and, with more firm determination and more pragmatic actions, strengthen trade union cooperation, actively participate in the reform of global governance, and strive for the welfare of workers in BRICS countries, for the construction of a more fair and reasonable global governance system, and for the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.

Thank you all!