After graduating from university a year ago, Shan Ho landed the exact job that she wanted. But she never tells her parents what she does, other than vaguely calling it a “white-collar job”. They are aware of her meagre salary but don’t know the bigger truth : that Shan is a trade unionist. If they find out, they might lose sleep.

Working for a trade union has become a potentially dangerous career move in today’s Hong Kong. In the last few years, some of the city’s most prominent unionists have been jailed or forced into exile under Beijing’s sweeping national security law (NSL), introduced after the 2019-2020 anti-government protest movement. Nearly 250 unions have disbanded, and many of those that remain face multiple challenges.

The young unionist’s white lie to protect her parents from distress still seems to make sense, not least because the Hong Kong government is further tightening the screw on local trade unions.

In February, the labour authorities in Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, proposed a series of amendments to its Trade Unions Ordinance. On the grounds of safeguarding national security, it is proposed that : trade unions must obtain the authorities’ approval to receive funds from any “external force” ; individuals convicted of national security offences be banned permanently from serving in labour unions ; and authorities be given the power to enter union premises to seize documents, and to deny trade union registrations and mergers – with no right to appeal.

So far, responses expressed openly to the proposed amendments have been largely positive across Hong Kong, where opposition in the legislature has been wiped out and most major pro-democracy media outlets have been shut down. At a recent mini-parliamentary meeting, pro-Beijing unionist and lawmaker Lam Chun-sing said that during the 2019 movement, many labour unions staged “political strikes to attack the government”. He hoped the amendments would “better serve workers”. Stanley Ng, a pro-Beijing lawmaker and president of the FTU, took a similar stance, saying in an FTU statement that the bill can prevent any group from “carrying subversive activities” under the banner of unionism, while ensuring that trade unions genuinely focus on union-related affairs.

However, Joe Wong, a veteran unionist and former chairperson of the now-disbanded Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU), tells Equal Times that he worries the proposed changes might put off workers from joining labour unions.

“Unionism is already a politically sensitive matter today. The amendments might make workers even more cautious. If you have a new rule that allows government officers to come in and out of union offices to search documents, workers might not want to be associated with the union."

Ho, on the other hand, believes the government initiative would have no significant impact on independent trade unions in Hong Kong. In her view, a big part of the sector, which traditionally involves mostly blue-collar workers, has been dealt a severe blow in recent years ; further curbs would not make much difference. But she adds : “I’m not sure if anyone would want to form new unions in the future.”

The need for stricter measures

Part of the government’s rationale behind the amendments is that in 2019 and 2020, people “with ulterior motives” tried to carry out activities “endangering national security under the guise of trade unions”.

According to official figures, from November 2019 to May 2020, the number of applications to register trade unions surged dramatically to 4,386, compared to an average of 15 over the five preceding years.

Not all applications were successful. Still, the increase in the number of registered unions in 2020 was notable, from 917 in 2019 to 1,410 in the space of one year. According to Kingsley Wong, lawmaker and chairperson of the pro-Beijing Hong Kong Federation of Trade Unions (FTU), many of those new groups had a political agenda and amounted to “a big threat to national security”.

To many pro-democracy citizens, however, the sudden proliferation of unions in those days brought a brief moment of euphoria, raising hopes that a new chapter was beginning for the independent labour movement in a hyper-capitalistic city like Hong Kong.

The wave of unionisation from late 2019 to mid-2020 occurred at a time when the protest movement, sparked by a controversial extradition bill, had roiled the Asian financial hub for months and was growing increasingly violent. Some Hongkongers began to feel that striking was a way to take the movement forward. Others saw unionising as a means to sustain the momentum for potential social change ignited by the movement – and perhaps even win a vote representing the labour sector in the small-circle electoral college that elects the city’s top leader. A social worker who planned to form a union in those days admits : “Winning that vote was our main incentive to unionise. There was nothing illegal about that.”

But none of these ideas came to fruition ; the protest movement was ended around mid-2020 by the double whammy of Covid and the enactment of the Beijing-imposed NSL. The legislation criminalises secession, subversion, foreign collusion and terrorism, with offenders facing up to life imprisonment.

According to the Hong Kong government, the NSL has effectively turned Hong Kong from chaos to order, and “in the interests of national security”, it is necessary to further tighten regulations on trade unions through the Trade Unions Ordinance amendment bill. The bill is currently being deliberated in the city’s “patriots-only” mini-parliament. If passed, the new rules are likely to take effect sometime this year.
A sea change

The amendment bill is by no means surprising to independent unionists like Ho and Wong. Over the past few years, they have witnessed a sea change in the union sector, prompted by the authorities’ crackdown on the 2019 protest movement and the ensuing changes to the city’s political environment.

For a long time, Hong Kong’s labour union scene was dominated by the pro-Beijing FTU. In 1990, it began to split into two camps when the pro-democracy HKCTU was founded and became another force to be reckoned with. The FTU, however, remained the leading player, almost three times larger than the HKCTU.

As Hong Kong’s biggest pro-democracy and independent trade union confederation, HKCTU represented about 145,000 workers from 93 unions. Apart from championing local workers’ rights, it had been at the core of Hong Kong’s decades-long democratic movement while also advocating for labour rights in mainland China. During the 2019 pro-democracy movement, HKCTU was actively involved.

Not long after Beijing promulgated the NSL for Hong Kong in mid-2020, to crush the protests, a number of HKCTU leaders alongside some other activist unionists, were caught up in the crackdown.

Co-founder and general secretary Lee Cheuk-yan, chairperson Carol Ng, and vice chairperson Leo Tang were arrested, prosecuted or convicted on protests-related or NSL charges ; chief executive Mung Siu-tat fled to the UK, citing “imminent political risks and safety concerns”. Meanwhile, dozens of pro-democracy trade unions disbanded one after another. They include the Union for New Civil Servants in January 2021, and the Professional Teachers’ Union, the city’s largest independent trade union, in August 2021. Fears over shrinking civil liberties grew – and intensified further in October 2021, when HKCTU disbanded amid mounting political pressure.

Today, in an era of greater control by Beijing, stability has been restored in Hong Kong – - according to pro-Beijing leaders. But foreign forces with an eye on notions such as freedom and democracy have a different take. In many international indices related to rights and liberty, Hong Kong does not fare well. In the 2025 edition of the Global Rights Index published by the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC), for example, Hong Kong is rated five – the same as Bangladesh, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. Among other things, the Index denounces the broad use of “external or foreign interference”, which the ITUC deems a threat to democratic rights, since such an approach targets dissent.

“An uphill struggle”

The dissolution of the influential HKCTU isa serious setback to unionism in Hong Kong for activists and rights groups. Among the first to bear the brunt are HKCTU’s numerous affiliated unions. The Hong Kong Buildings Management and Security Workers General Union, where Shan Ho serves as organising secretary, is one such group.

Since HKCTU’s fall, the small union has been struggling to get by. A dramatic decline in membership and shortage of funds are the biggest challenges. Between 2020 and the end of 2024, the group’s membership plummeted by nearly 85 per cent, from 474 to 74. Its funds are running out fast, enough to last for just one to two more years.

According to Ho, in the past her union had partly relied on training courses provided by HKCTU to recruit new members, and it could use HKCTU’s offices to run union business, significantly saving on rental expenses in a city where property costs are sky high. Now these perks are gone. In today’s political climate, the group’s past ties with the HKCTU may further hinder its ability to attract funds and members. “It’s tough to find new members to join. I don’t know if it has to do with politics, or if it has always been this difficult,” she says.

Economising is now key to the survival of the Buildings Management and Security Workers General Union. It currently shares office space in an old industrial building with another union, the Cleaning Service Industry Workers Union. Ho herself is personally seeking social enterprise funding to subsidise her group. “It’s an uphill struggle to run a union,” she says.

“Like being bitten by a snake and having a limb amputated”

Wong, who currently heads the Cleaning Service Industry Workers Union, foresaw these challenges back in 2021 when he and other core HKCTU members organised a vote on whether to disband HKCTU.

He recalls : “It was a very tough decision to call it quits. It’s like being bitten by a snake and having a limb amputated. We knew independent unions would be greatly affected, but there was no other choice. We wanted everyone at HKCTU to stay safe.”

In the aftermath of HKCTU’s collapse, Wong also experienced trauma himself. Six months after the dissolution, he and two colleagues were taken away by national security police for allegedly failing to supply information related to HKCTU. The trio were later convicted and received a small fine. In late April 2023, police knocked on his door at dawn again – this time about his plan to organise a march on International Workers’ Day. He was briefly detained incommunicado. After his release, the media reported that he had suffered from “an emotional meltdown” due to having been placed under such intense pressure.

Wong remains tight-lipped on what happened that day. “Now I like getting up at 5am every day because they rang the bell at 6am. I train myself to be wide awake early,” he says wryly, referring to the national security police. “But I’m in a much more fortunate position than many others.”

Since the NSL was passed more than a dozen unionists have been arrested. Former HKCTU leaders Carol Ng and Lee Cheuk-yan have both been held behind bars for over 1,500 days.

Ng is expected to be set free in July 2025 upon completing her sentence. Lee is among the pro-democracy figures in Hong Kong who have faced the highest number of charges. Having served 20 months in prison for four protest-related offences, he remains on remand awaiting a national security trial set to begin in November this year. His charge of “inciting subversion” carries a maximum penalty of 10 years’ imprisonment. His unionist wife Elizabeth Tang (formerly general secretary of the International Domestic Workers Federation) and her sister have also been targets of the national security police : Elizabeth Tang was arrested in March 2023 and later released without charge, while her younger sister Marilyn Tang was jailed for six months for perverting the course of justice by removing electronic devices from Elizabeth Tang’s home shortly after her arrest.
“Had you come earlier, we could have gone on strike”

According to Wong, with the radical shift in Hong Kong’s political landscape, pro-democracy trade unions have lost much of their bargaining power to represent labour concerns in policymaking.

“There’s no government intervention in trade unions, but independent unions are facing many challenges, from a shortage of funds to workers’ lack of trust in them. It’s all very obvious,” he explains. “At the same time, many workers think that because the economy is not doing well, they should be content that they still have a job… and it’s better to stay away from trade unions.”

With the HKCTU gone and widespread worker apathy, many independent unions must now work harder to reach out to workers. However, providing timely support is often a challenge.

Recently, security guards of a public housing estate found their salaries slashed by nearly one-fifth after the estate’s security service was awarded to a new contractor. The new contract is worth HK$4 million (about €446,000) more than the previous one, but none of that increase trickles down to the workers. At one point, Ho’s union heard about the case through the grapevine, but by the time her team got hold of the security guards, they had already signed an agreement on the salary cut.

During the meeting, the workers appeared full of grievances, with one saying to Ho : “Had you come earlier, we could have organised a strike.”

Ho says that she believes things might have turned out differently if Hong Kong had a vibrant trade union landscape – and that her team could have been alerted earlier and offered help.

Nonetheless, there are workers who choose to take industrial action without relying on trade unions. In 2021, hundreds of couriers for the food delivery platform Foodpanda went on strike over wage cuts and working conditions. True to 21^st-century form, the workers coordinated the action through social media chat groups. In one street protest, police warned the striking workers, many of whom were from different parts of south-east Asia, to disperse and threatened the use of force if they failed to comply. Eventually the workers reached an agreement with the food delivery company, but core issues remain unresolved. Foodpanda couriers and other food delivery platform workers have staged several more strikes since.

In another incident, a group of cleaners tried to organise themselves to fight for better working conditions but later backed off under pressure. A retired cleaner involved in the matter who does not want to be identified told Equal Times : “When we were about to meet [the employer], the workers and the supervisor stepped back. They felt under pressure from some people. Around that time, I also got a phone call from a stranger telling me I had better withdraw from the action. The voice was gentle, but I never knew who this person was.”

The retiree, formerly a supervisor for a cleaning subcontractor, does not elaborate further. He only says that, in the end, the cleaners decided not to pursue the matter or seek help from a trade union. “It’s better not to do anything for the moment. There’s nothing else one can do,” he says.

“If no-one helps these workers, what will happen ?”

According to Article 27 of Hong Kong’s mini-constitution, Hong Kong residents have freedom of association, of assembly, of procession and of demonstration, and the freedom to form and join trade unions, as well as the right to strike. Since Beijing imposed the NSL, these rights have been exercised by unions and workers with great caution, if at all. The city’s annual May Day march, which traditionally drew thousands of unionists and workers to take to the streets, has not been held since 2019. Temporary street booths set up by labour groups to promote labour rights often draw police scrutiny.

The total number of trade unions in Hong Kong has declined annually in recent years, dropping from 1,527 in 2021 to 1,412 in 2024. While 249 unions have disbanded since 2021, new ones have formed, but the number of newly established unions has likewise plummeted since peaking at 495 in 2020, falling to 180 in 2021, 40 in 2022, 25 in 2023, and six in 2024.

With various constraints and challenges, the capacity of Hong Kong’s trade unions to drive change for workers is now in question. A food delivery worker who prefers to speak anonymously tells Equal Times : “There are no collective bargaining rights in Hong Kong, so the power of trade unions is limited nowadays, especially for independent unions. If delivery workers organise strikes themselves, they can’t achieve much either. We have very little bargaining power.”

The retired cleaner is philosophical. “Let’s wait and see. We just have to outlive the regime,” he says. “Unions are always important in society, especially to grassroots workers who don’t know enough about their rights.”

Fay Siu, chief executive of the labour group, the Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims, concurs.

“Many construction workers don’t know what rights they have. When they are bullied by their bosses, or when their wages, working hours or working conditions are unfair, they don’t dare to complain. Some of them don’t care about safety. They won’t even wear a safety belt when working at height. There’s a sense of heroism to it,” Siu explains.

“We’ve seen many tragic deaths and sad events over the years. If no one helps these workers and their families, what will happen ? That’s what keeps us going.”

According to Siu, her group and the workers it represents have unexpectedly gained a higher profile in the media amid Hong Kong’s political transformation. With many voices of dissent silenced under the NSL, more newspaper column inches have been freed up for reporting on industrial accidents, particularly those involving fatalities.

“There has been more news coverage, and raising funds has become easier, but all for a rather sad reason,” she says.

Another unexpected development, Siu points out, is that without the opposition, policymaking tends to move faster. “But discussions often don’t go very deep. In the end, it feels like decisions are made just for the sake of it,” she explains. “On the whole, there has been steady progress over the years, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement.”

In the long run, Siu is pessimistic about the prospects for improving grassroots workers’ rights in Hong Kong. “The force [behind this kind of work] is shrinking. We feel like we are on our own. In the past there were more people and groups around. They might be able to identify your shortcomings, which pushed you to improve. That helped shape a better environment.”

New partnerships

For Joe Wong, the solution is to try not to go it alone. His union sometimes collaborates with NGOs to run projects or provide service targeting cleaning workers. “Things are more fragmented now. Trade unions are no longer the only channel promoting workers’ interests. Some concern groups, individual activists and religious groups have also joined the scene to advocate for labour rights. They can be quite effective at the grassroots level.”

One of his collaborators is Lok Day Culture, an NGO that provides community-based care and support services. It joins forces with Wong’s union to organise programmes such as community guided tours for members of the public to glean an understanding of street cleaners’ work, as well as free massage for fatigued workers.

According to Founder Kung Wai-lok, blue-collar workers are more open to community-based groups than to trade unions, not least because they are considered to be free of political baggage. When Lok Day’s community centre opened in a working-class neighbourhood in Kowloon a few years ago, Kung displayed objects representing different beliefs and ideologies on the premises – from the Bible to bracelets carrying Mao Zedong’s image – partly for fun and partly to avoid being labelled politically.

“When you ask a worker for their passport photo to apply for something, they can get very alert. Many things can make them cautious and walk away,” he explains. “Here, we are informal, flexible and organic in our approach. We can reach out to more workers. It’s impossible to take to the streets now, but there’s no need to be pessimistic. One can come up with new ideas.”

NGOs like Lok Day, however, have their limitations compared to trade unions. Whereas trade unions can represent workers in legal proceedings, including those related to labour disputes, NGOs do not have this right. In addition, worker membership gives trade unions their democratic mandate - an attribute NGOs lack.

For Joe Wong, now in his 50s, hope comes mainly from the younger generation of unionists and labour rights advocates. “It’s heartening to see young people joining the scene. They are bringing fresh energy and new ideas. Because of them, I still see hope in independent unions. It’s tough but there’s still hope.”

Shirley Lau is a Hong-Kong born journalist