Wei Jianxing, president of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), said in a recent inspection tour of Tianjin, a port city in north China, that reform and development of state-owned enterprises must fully rely on the working class.

The central task of trade unions at all levels at the present stage is to study conscientiously and implement the tasks set by the Fourth Plenum of the 15th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and by the Central Economic Working Conference, and mobilize workers to make new contributions toward attaining the goal of seeing the SOEs out of difficulty in three years, said Wei, who is also a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau.

He urged trade unions to carry out various kinds of labor competitions, technical innovations, and other activities among workers, while performing the functions of trade unions and maintaining the lawful rights and interests of workers.

Trade unions should assist the Party and government to fulfill the tasks of reducing the labor force and increasing efficiency while helping laid-off workers find new jobs. They should also do a conscientious job of conducting democratic evaluations of factory leaders, building a corporate system for state-owned or- controlled enterprises, expanding trade unions to new firms, and improving the building of trade unions, he said.

The aim of all these tasks is to arouse the enthusiasm of the broad masses of workers and channel their zeal into the three-year objectives for the reform of state-owned enterprises, Wei said.