A senior official with the All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) said Monday that in two years all trade unions nationwide would carry out collective negotiations on wages.

By 2012, more than 90 percent of enterprises in China should have trade unions which would represent more than 92 percent of the nation's workers, said Wang Yupu, ACFTU vice-chairperson, at a meeting here.

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Trade unions would carry out democratic election of workers' representatives and collective negotiation on wages, said Wang.

Leaders of some grassroot organizations lack the knowledge of collective bargaining and local trade unions should be responsible for training them, he added.

About 80 percent of enterprises in China are privately-run, according to Wang, who said trade unions must protect the interests of migrant workers and dispatched workers.

By the end of 2009, about 84 million out of all the 230 million migrant workers in China had joined trade unions. Eighty-seven percent of the Fortune 500 companies' China headquarters have established trade unions. There were more than 1.8 million trade unions with some 226 million registered members nationwide, according to the ACFTU.

(Xinhua News Agency August 31, 2010)