[1] 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.
[2][3] 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.