Hong Kong workers can raise issues through ‘celebrations,’ pro-Beijing union says as it confirms no Labour Day march

Hong Kong’s largest trade union federation has confirmed that it will not organise a march for Labour Day, as its chairman said workers’ issues can be raised through “celebrations.”

The Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (HKFTU) announced on Sunday that it would hold a series of events ahead of Labour Day next Wednesday to raise awareness of the importance of “labour value and dignity.”

Among the activities planned was a visit by Chief Executive John Lee and other high-ranking officials to frontline workers, who will respond to workers’ demands face to face, the pro-Beijing organisation said.

The group will file a petition at the Central Government Offices on Saturday to reflect the demands of its 400,000 odd members, HKFTU lawmaker Kingsley Wong said. The HKFTU’s branch on occupational safety will also express its demands at the government headquarters.

No march

In a press conference on Sunday, HKFTU chairman and legislator Stanley Ng confirmed that the group will not organise a march on Labour Day. Asked if the organisation will cease holding a march on May 1 in the future, Ng said the group could use different ways to raise concerns on labour issues.

“We can express issues which workers are most concerned with through celebrations on Labour Day on May 1. We are okay with any format, as look as we can express [our demands],” Ng said.

Founded in 1948, the organisation representing more than 250 unions in the city used to organise annual marches on May 1 to promote labour rights, but it stopped in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Last year, two former members of the defunct Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) – once the city’s largest pro-democracy union coalition – applied for police approval to organise a public demonstration on Labour Day.

But the planned march was scrapped after one of its organisers, Joe Wong, was said to have gone missing for four hours. Later, another organiser Denny To released a statement and said Wong had not been arrested but had experienced an “emotional meltdown” and was under tremendous pressure.

The Federation of Hong Kong and Kowloon Labour Unions (HKFLU), the city’s second largest labour union, said last week that it would host a forum on occupational safety instead of a march, marking the fifth consecutive year it had not held a march on May 1.

‘Anti-China’ forces

Ng told the press on Sunday that the events planned by the HKFTU were about expressing “the demands of the workers” and the lack of a march did not mean the organisation was trying to “avoid something.” Ng said during the 2019 extradition bill unrest, which he described as “black-clad riots,” the unions representing some “so-called medics and so-called teachers” had organised “resistance” for political purposes.

The HKFTU could not rule out the possibility of underground “anti-China forces” that may try to make use of trade unions to stir up trouble, Ng said. The group organised an event two days ahead the National Security Education Day last Monday to show how “Western colour revolutions” used trade unions to subvert the state power, and infiltrate and seize political power, he said.

“I don’t believe that the majority of our workers would organise soft resistance,” Ng said, using an ill-defined term that has been increasingly adopted by government officials.

This year’s Labour Day will be the first since Hong Kong passed a homegrown security law required under Article 23 of the Basic Law.

Separate to the 2020 Beijing-enacted security law, the homegrown Safeguarding National Security Ordinance targets treason, insurrection, sabotage, external interference, sedition, theft of state secrets and espionage. It allows for pre-charge detention of to up to 16 days, and suspects’ access to lawyers may be restricted, with penalties involving up to life in prison. Article 23 was shelved in 2003 amid mass protests, remaining taboo for years. But, on March 23, 2024, it was enacted having been fast-tracked and unanimously approved at the city’s opposition-free legislature.

The law has been criticised by rights NGOs, Western states and the UN as vague, broad and “regressive.” Authorities, however, cited perceived foreign interference and a constitutional duty to “close loopholes” after the 2019 protests and unrest.

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