Luozhuang's federation of trade unions reaches gig workers through a three-tier structure

The Luozhuang district federation of trade unions in Linyi, East China's Shandong province, has built a three-tier organizing structure to bring couriers, truck drivers, e-commerce workers and other gig-economy employees into the union system, addressing a gap that has kept such workers outside collective services in most Chinese cities.

The district started with industries rather than geography. It has established five industry-level union federations covering express delivery, freight, e-commerce and two other sectors, each of which organizes companies within its own field and lets frontline workers join at a location near their workplace. A district-level federation for new forms of employment was then added to absorb workers who fall outside any single industry.

The two levels have sent staff to delivery stations and freight yards, distributing more than 3,000 information packets and gift packages, and providing 300 free accident insurance policies under the employee mutual aid program.

The district also used a leading company as an organizing anchor. Linyi Shentong Express set up an express delivery supply chain union federation that initially brought together 14 upstream and downstream companies, breaking down the boundaries that had kept competitors from sharing representation. The federation has since focused on the needs of couriers, sorters and truck drivers, upgrading dormitory and recreation facilities, running legal education sessions, and mediating 33 labor disputes that recovered 590,000 yuan ($83,000) for workers. Staff turnover at participating companies fell from 20 percent to below 4 percent.

For platform companies such as the JD.com sorting center, which has no independent legal personality and therefore cannot form a union of its own, the district introduced a "union group as a backstop" method: the regional or industry federation provides the organizational framework, and a dedicated union group is set up at the sorting site itself so that sorters and delivery riders can join where they work.

Luozhuang now has more than 6,000 union members in new forms of employment, and has run more than 20 training and assistance programs for them.

The district said its next step is to standardize the three-tier structure, improve the systems for organization, service and rights protection, and extend the model to further areas of gig work.

Editor：韩蒙蒙