Central Confederation of Daxian Trade Unions

The Central Confederation of Daxian Trade Unions-CCCTU is the largest and only legal agglomeration of trade unions and labor syndicates in the Republic of Daxia. It replaced the disestablished All-Daxian Workers Central Union, which lost all official recognition in 1993 and had all its remnants fully absorbed by the new organization. Its General President since 1993 is Frede Gronk, alias 'the Immortal'.

It is considered one of the great pillars of support of the Party of Daxian Democrats. By keeping wages stable, workers pliant and subdued and its sectorial branches providing disciplined and technically skilled workers to the national economy, the Central Confederation of Daxian Trade Unions has become an immovable feature of Daxian life. Its national directorate is located in Minxia City.

History
The All-Daxian Workers Central Union had been created during the presidency of Qiu Heng to absorb all of the unions and workers cooperatives that had begun to spring into existence in the late Qian period. Most of these workers bodies agreed to join the ACWCU, the few that resisted and tried to maintain their autonomy were repressed by the government. The compromise was to keep the factories running and workers off the streets in exchange for guaranteed salary hikes and other privileges. The arrangement worked until the NRF began to critically weaken in the 1980's, its legitimacy coming under increasing scrutiny. The ACWCU broke its pact with the government, perhaps hoping to extract more concessions and whitewash its public image as government cronies. Whatever the case the union joined the campaign for free elections, led ironically by Linge Chen, the man who would become the hangman of the old union.

After a failed attempt to impose new pro-PCD leadership at the top of the All-Daxian Workers Central Union(ACWCU), the Central Confederation of Daxian Trade Unions was formed in 1992 as an effort to undermine the former and render it irrelevant as a political force. With the connivance and support from the newly elected Linge Chen government, the mining magnate and PCD member Frede Gronk conducted suspect assembly meetings and registered the CCCTU with the Ministry of Labor, enrolling thousands of his workers into the new organization.

The government began a campaign of pressure and intimidation on the ACWCU and its affiliate organizations. Ousting leaders by setting up bogus assemblies or outright jailing them on charges of industrial wrecking or corruption, the ACWCU was quickly starved of support and its affiliated trade and labor unions began to defect en masse to the CCCTU. By late 1993 with their ranks depleted and with their office building under threat of seizure by fiscal authorities, the ACWCU acquiesced to the imposition of a new leader, who then proceeded to liquidate the union and turn over its remaining assets to the CCCTU.

Attempts in later years to form new labor organizations outside of the CCCTU have been routinelly crushed, with founding assemblies raided by the police.

Criticism
The Central Confederation of Daxian Trade Unions is criticized by outside observers as not being truly motivated by the need to protect the rights and prerrogatives of its worker affiliates and instead being a willing partner and beneficiary of the crony capitalism that is rampant in the Daxian economy. Working hand in glove with corporations and the government to keep bargaining rights to a minimum and maintain wages barely above inflation. The CCCTU is also criticized for the absolute lack of internal democracy and its ingrained systems of patronage; labor bosses lack any real accountability to the workers and typically stay in their positions for decades.

Another criticism is the political protection it lends to the National Union of Road Transport Workers(NURTW), with widespread reports that many of its members engage in extortion, racketeering and kidnapping. In many cities across Daxia, members of the NURTW serve as thugs for the Party and as minor criminal bosses in their own right.

Affiliated Unions

 * National Union of Road Transport Workers
 * All-Union Farmers Federation
 * Miners and Metal Workers Union of Daxia
 * National Syndicate of Petroleum Industry Workers
 * Daxian Association of Poppy Laborers
 * National Federation of Human Traders
 * National Crime Syndicate
 * National Coalition of Streetsweepers
 * Federation of Tailors and Seamstresses