The FTU's policies echo those of the PRC government,and the federation is widely held to receive financial and logistical support from Beijing. And, while no part of the Hong Kong labor movement is militant by international standards, the FTU is particularly docile. It places great importance on establishing fundamental union rights and conditions in Hong Kong and is willing to mount protests on labor issues as well as broader social questions. We firmly believe that in a capitalist society, workers must exercise their collective strength and bargaining in order to achieve better rewards, fairer distribution of wealth and more democratic labor relations. Thus, there is little direct government interference in union activities, but little government enforcement of laws to protect unionists either.
Unions also complain that there are numerous shortcomings in legal protections for workers.
Strikes and other forms of union action are not common in Hong Kong, as the government is keen to boast when luring investors. Until recently, most grievances expressed by large civil-service unions related to wages and conditions of service. The government refused to make concessions, however, until a three-day hunger strike won an agreement to progressively reduce working hours, with an initial reduction to 54. In 1990, some labor protests took on greater political overtones after the government threatened to invoke the Letters Patent, an old colonial statute which confers enormous power on the governor, and dismiss employees in response to proposed strikes by four postal unions. The threatened use of the Letters Patent sparked international as well as local outrage.