Its early activities stemmed from Chaidamu Basin salt miners' collectives in 1940s, which resisted Nationalist and warlord exploitation during the Chinese Civil War. During the 1950s–1960s, the QHFTU mobilized workers for state-led projects such as the Qinghai-Tibet Highway in 1954 and the Golmud Oil Refinery in 1958, integrating Tibetan and Hui ethnic laborers under socialist labor campaigns.[2][3]
Post-1978 reforms saw the union address layoffs in declining state-owned mining enterprises and mediate disputes in Xining's emerging ethnic handicraft industries.[4] In the 2010s, it prioritized ecological labor transitions through the Qinghai Green Skills Initiative in 2017, training workers in solar energy and lithium extraction for the Qaidam Renewable Energy Base.[5][6]
