BEIJING - Nearly one out of every five Chinese are now members of trade unions, with more than 17 million workers joining labor unions last year, according to data from the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU) on Saturday.

The country's total trade union members now stand at 258 million, or about 20 percent of China's population, according to the ACFTU.

The unionized Chinese equal the combined population of Germany, France, United Kingdom and Italy.

Of the country's trade union members, more than 94 million are migrant workers who come from rural areas and seek jobs in cities.

Currently, trade union organizations have been established in about 5.2 million businesses.

The ACFTU will work to add at least 630,000 trade union organizations and more than 10 million union members, this year.

According to the ACFTU, 23 out of 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities in the Chinese mainland have enacted on collective wage negotiation, a right that enable employees to choose representatives on their behalf to negotiate with employers on wage scales, working hours, training, health and other issues.

To date, the collective wage negotiation system has covered more than 100 million employees and 1.74 million businesses.