Nearly two-thirds of the migrant construction workers in Shanghai will become members of China's trade union next month.

For the first time these workers will enjoy union membership and will have practical assistance for tasks like booking railway tickets, having medical check-ups and getting mediation, officials of the Shanghai Construction and Transport Commission said.

Yin Songqing, a migrant worker from Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, proudly shows off his trade union membership card yesterday.

Part of them, 300 migrant workers received union cards yesterday from the city's government and trade union leaders at a construction site in Baoshan District.

"Union membership will ensure migrant workers have their legal rights enforced," Wang Jianran, a commission official who oversees the city's construction union, said yesterday.

He said the city has established construction unions at district level and required all of its construction sites to be unionized.

All the unions are recognized by the Beijing-based All China Federations of Trade Union.

According to the commission, the city has 650,000 migrant workers involved in the construction industry and of these 200,000 are enrolled as union members.

By the end of next month, another 200,000 workers will be enrolled with their own union cards.

Like other unions, the construction union will give its members advice on their legal rights and working conditions. Union members will have to work for a construction company for three months or more.

(Shanghai Daily August 29, 2007)