Submitted By: Erik Slayter

Referencing this article found in the Wall Street Journal.

I guess the answer to that question depends on your point of view. The president of the Teamsters James Hoffa is on his way to Beijing to explore possibilities of helping to improve working conditions in China. His launching off points will be United Parcel Service and YRC Worldwide - two of the largest employers of Teamster members here at home. Not surprisingly, employees of these two companies are not unionized in China.

The AFL-CIO [as a side note, take a look at the arcade games on the AFL-CIO site ] does not formally recognize the Chinese “All-China Federation of Trade Unions” because they have no rights to strike and do not use collective bargaining for contract negotiations.

Hoffa says, “the workers can’t be ignored”. The cynic in me thinks that what Hoffa meant to say is, “gadzooks there’s a lot of union dues to be collected.” With the recent financial troubles with our automobile manufacturers in the US, I’m sure the unions are taking a hit - is this just another example of global expansion by big business to help diversify it’s revenue stream or does Hoffa really want to help every worker in every country?