Currently, China is in a period of slowing economic growth and rapid industrial restructuring, whilst the rights and interests of migrant workers are vulnerable to infringement. Hence, the role of trade unions in this regard attracts widespread social attention. The current study, based on the dynamic monitoring survey data of 2014 National Health and Family Planning Commission migrant population, estimated the trade unions effects on the protection of rights and interests of migrant workers, which was computed using two-stage least squares ( TSLS ), extended regression model ( ERM ) and multiple logit model. The results of the study show that trade unions can not only signifi cantly increase the salaries and incomes of migrant workers, reduce their working hours and problems of excessive labor, but also signifi cantly improve their social insurance benefi ts, increasing their participation in old-age insurance, unemployment insurance, urban workers' medical insurance, industrial injury insurance and maternity insurance. Therefore, in order to safeguard the basic labor rights and interests of migrant workers, trade union organizations should, fi rst and foremost, make great efforts to enlarge the membership rate of migrant workers