Efforts to loosen the Vietnamese Party‘s grip over unions were more successful.The Sixth Trade Union Congress in 1988was a watershed in this respect.The Congressdeclared that the objective was to build strong unions with rights to self-governance.The Congress adopted the slogan ？renewal ，openness and democracy ì；and forthe first time at a trade union congress，delegates could air spontaneous opinions，rather than simply offer formalistic statements that were orchestrated from above.Nguyen Van Linh ，the Secretary General of the Party ，announced at the congressthat leading trade-union cadres need not be Party members ，and urged union cadresto voice their ideas independent of the Party and management（though he cautionedthat this did not mean the union was to be completely free from Party control ）。[51] Labour Laws and Union Constitutions To adjust to the rapidly changing labour situation，both countries recognizedthe necessity to draw up new legislation，and during the drafting process differentinterests within the government contended to influence the new legal documents‘contents.[52]In China the Trade Union Law was passed in 1992；[53]a new ACFTUConstitution was drawn up in 1993；[54]and a Labour Law was adopted in July 1994.[55]In Vietnam the corresponding years for these developments were 1990，1993and1994.But the parallel sequencing of legislative activities took placeindependentlyof each other.The coincidence reflected the emergence of very similar labour issues；it was not that the two countries were necessarily learning from or influencingeach other. 1 |
