Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions

The Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions, is a municipal branch of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions.

History

It was formally established in May 1925 during the May Thirtieth Movement, a pivotal labor uprising against foreign concessions. Its origins trace to the Shanghai Mechanics' Union in 1920, which organized strikes in Japanese-owned cotton mills and British shipyards along the Huangpu River. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the SFTU operated underground, coordinating sabotage of Japanese industrial facilities in Hongkou District and supporting communist guerrilla forces.
Post-1949, the SFTU centralized labor governance in state-owned industries, managing flagship enterprises like the Baoshan Iron and Steel Complex in 1978. During the 1990s Pudong New Area reforms, it pioneered labor arbitration systems for foreign-invested factories and mediated disputes in China's first Shanghai Stock Exchange-listed companies.
In the 2010s, the SFTU launched the Shanghai Digital Workers' Platform in 2017, partnering with tech giants like Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation and Baidu to train workers in AI, fintech, and semiconductor manufacturing.