Strengthening Freedom of Association in Asia 2010

Strengthening Freedom of Associationin Asia

Strategies and Mechanisms

AsiA Monitor resource centre • Center for trade union and Human rigHts

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Strengthening Freedom of Associationin Asia

Strategies and Mechanisms

Meeting proceedingSDevelopment Academy of the PhilippinesTagaytay City, Philippines 3-4 October 2010

AsiA Monitor resource centre • Center for trade union and Human rigHts

Asia Monitor resource centreFlat 7, 9/F, Block AFuk Keung Industrial Building 66-68 Tong Mi Road, Kowloon, Hong KongTel. (852) 2332-1346Fax (852) 2385-5319Website: www.amrc.org.hk

AMrc is a non-governmental organization based in Hong Kong which supports democratic and independent labour movements in Asia through research, publications, training and labour networking.

center for trade Union and Human rights,inc702 Culmat Bldg, 127 E. Rodriguez Avenue Quezon city, 1112 Philippines Telefax No. 632.4110256Email: [email protected]: www.ctuhr.org

ctUHr is an independent non-governmental organization engaged in documentation, research and investigation of human rights violations committed against workers. It is also engaged in education, training and advocacy for workers rights and assists in the formation of workers and community organizations in the Philippines.

First Published OnlineMarch 2011

Cover image: new Asian MapKarl Fredrick M. Castrobe.net/karlcastro/frame

http://be.net/karlcastro/frame

contents

I Meeting Background and process 7

II participants

III Abstract of presentations on trade Union repression in Asian countries 11

IV Summary of participants’ Analysis on trade Union repression in Asia 17

V country presentations on trade Union repression in Asian countries and Wrap-up 22

PhiliPPines 25Daisy AragoCenter for Trade Union and Human Rights

Rudy Bela and Dante Morales AragoCabuyao Workers’ Alliance

indonesia 37Anwar ‘Sastro’ Mar’ufWorking People’s Association

Cambodia 41Horng VuthyCambodian Labour Federation

bangladesh 49Abul HossainBangladesh Garment Workers and Employees Federation

india 53Surendra PratapAsia Monitor Resource Centre

southKorea 57Na, Hyun-phil (‘Phil’) Korean House for International Solidarity

Kim, Young-gonCenter to Get Back Teacher Status for Lecturers & Normalization of University Education

China 63 Apo Leong

Consultant, Asia Monitor Resource Centre

Tai, Ngai-lung (‘A-Lung’)Labour Education and Service Network

VII Wrap-up of discussions 67

VII needs and plans for Future Asian campaign Against trade Union repression 75

Strengthening Freedom of Association in Asia 7

Meeting Background and process

Aggressive union-busting and violent repression of organizing have been among the chief problems faced by Asian labour organizations when they organize workers in defense of their labour rights – with gross impunity even in cases where such rights are clearly constitutionally guaranteed.

In the past ten or more years, corporations have been allowed to grow in power virtually unrestricted, while pushing workers to their limits. Both when asserting their demands at the workplace and bargaining table, and in the streets, workers have been increasingly been faced with arrests, police and security guard beatings, threats and, at the worst, disappearances and killings.

The use and justification of physical violence are just part of the wide array of aggressive tactics used by employers as well as governments. The tactics range from criminalizing ordinary means of workers’ struggle, such as pickets, peaceful assemblies, strikes and even funeral marches, which all can be seen in South Korea, the Philippines, China, India and Indonesia. The problem is far from a new one – as reflected in Asian Labour Update, Issue 48 (July – September 2003), and followed up again in Asian Labour Update, Issue 72 (July-September 2009), union-busting is closely linked with foreign direct investment, and some of the worst cases of direct union-busting still, are found in Asian transnational corporations such as Samsung, Toyota, Honda and others.

Labour movements throughout Asia are suffering the same phenomena, though in different forms. Despite the commonality, they are often fighting in isolation from each other.

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On 3-4 October 2010, Asia Monitor Resource Centre (AMRC) held a meeting of a small group of labour groups and labour researchers from at least five countries in Asia in which the aims were:

A. Sharing among country researchers and practitionersFor each country/organization, to share and present on:

The• forms of repression of organizing that workers face: what are they, and how do they correlate with the stage of organizing or forming a union? What impacts do they have on workers and organizing?What• factors (external, economic, political) contribute to the use and legitimization of violence – whether by employers or by police and military – against workers who organize?What • countermeasures are workers taking to limit the attacks they face when organizing, and to organize ‘nevertheless’?

Across the region, to share and jointly learn:What are the patterns of trade union repression across the countries? • For example, is there a correlation with investment patterns, legal framework, or industry? with the level of militarization?How can the shared experiences and strategies lead to local coalitions, • then a regionalized joint campaign?

The co-hosts AMRC and CTUHR presented overviews on trade union repression in Asia, the rationale for the meeting, and then followed by presentations on trade union repression (including repression of any worker who is organizing, even if not of unions) in each country. Each session would be followed by a Question & Answer (Q&A) period, for clarification and observations. An abstract of these presentations is provided in Section IV, and the individual presentations are provided in Section V.

As part of the same initiative, reports from each country based on data from labour organizations combining secondary sources and interviews, has been started, and these reports will be finalized by the participants and published to support the future campaign against trade union repression.


B. comprehensive sharing from ctUHr: Quick response teams (Qrt) and the development of the organization’s strategies against repression and to promote organizing in the face of itIn the Philippines after years of combating severe repression, the Center on Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) has developed Quick Response Teams (QRTs). They are teams of trained workers’ or trade union leaders or organizers who act as paralegals, lawyers (in serious cases) and workers which are dispatched in a situation where violations of workers’ rights are happening or likely to happen, such as strike, or demonstration dispersal, arrests and detention, union election where tension is high or involving goons, police or military or other similar incidents. They aim to: 1) help prevent further commitment of human rights violations; 2) provide legal support to the victims; 3) provide moral, physical, medical or psychological and even materials support to the victims, 4) concretely and objectively document the situation in aid of filing of charges or countercharges, campaigns or advocacy; 5) and to recommend remedies or the next course of action.

CTUHR has also developed complementary strategies to raise human rights and labour rights awareness, and will also elaborate on their experiences leading to these developments.

CTUHR’s sharing on the development and practice of QRT is given in the Philippine presentation in Section V.

c. Follow-up After the sharing and discussion, the participants decided together on follow-up, which may include:

Alliance-building for local and regional joint campaigning• Follow-up workshops to extend the strategies in other settings (within • country or in other countries)Other forms of information-sharing that participants agree on•

There are already different initiatives and projects undertaken by other labour and human rights groups, and our project is intended to complement rather than duplicate those.

The needs and plans of the meeting participants as follow-up to this meeting are presented in Section V.

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The participants in the meeting were labour activists and union leaders from seven countries in Asia, where severe repression of trade unions and worker organizing has been happening.

Bangladesh Abul Hossain is the President of the Bangladesh Garment Workers and Employees Federation.

CambodiaHorng Vuthy is a Project Coordinator of Cambodian Labour Confederation, one of the major independent union confederations in Cambodia.

Hong Kong/ChinaTai, Ngai Lung is a Programme Officer of Labour Education Service Network, a labour education NGO based in Hong Kong but working in mainland China.

IndonesiaAnwar ‘Sastro’ Mar’uf is the general chairman of Working People’s Association (PRP).

PhilippinesDante Morales is the Secretary General of the Calamba Workers Alliance (CAWAL), a regional worker alliance.Rudy Bela is a Paralegal Staff of the Organized Labor Association in Line Industries and Agriculture (OLALIA), affiliated to Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU).

participants

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Marlon Torres is Coordinator of the National Coalition for the Protection of Workers’ Rights – Southern Tagalog (NCPWR-ST), a regional worker alliance.

South KoreaKim, Deck-joong is a former executive member of the Organizing Department of the Korean Metal Workers Union (KMWU), Ssangyong Motors Branch. He was released on August 9, 2010 from jail after about one year imprisonment for his role in the Ssangyong Motors sit-in occupation struggle.Kim, Young-gon is a lecturer at Korea University and Secretary for the Center to Get Back Teacher Status for Lecturers & Normalization of University Education.Kim, Dongay is Chairperson of the Center to Get Back Teacher Status for Lecturers & Normalization of University Education.Na, Hyun-phil is the Vice Executive Director of Korean House for International Solidarity (KHIS).

From the co-host organizations, the following persons participated in the meeting:Asia Monitor Resource Centre (AMRC), Hong KongApo Leong, Programme Coordinator/Consultant, ChinaIsmail Fahmi, Research CoordinatorDoris Lee, Publications CoordinatorSurendra Pratap, Intern

Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR), PhilippinesDaisy Arago, Executive DirectorJane Siwa, Public Information and Education Coordinator


In the Philippines, globalization has resulted in massive labour flexibilization and informalization. The historical militancy and social power of trade unions as shown in past anti-colonial and anti-dictatorship struggles have made them targets of government control and repression. While the laws guarantee labour rights in principle, many policies such as ‘no union, no strike’ in the SEZs as well as other policies and laws serve to weaken workers’ collective power. The government and military continue repression, including extrajudicial killings and disapperances with impunity. In response to these great dangers, CTUHR and trade unions have developed many ways to overcome or avoid trade union repression, including documentation, rallies, and the Quick Response Team (QRT) system to respond immediately to attacks on workers who exercise their labour and assembly rights.

In Indonesia, unions were once militant and powerful under the regime of Sukarno, but under the regime of Suharto they have been legally repressed so that only yellow or pro-government unions could survive. However from 1997, intensive labour flexilibization has taken place and even government unions have been severely weakened. Meanwhile groups like KASBI have arisen. And after years of struggle, now KASBI is a legally recognized union federation.

KASBI and other unions have observed intensive union-busting and the militant unions have agreed to establish a labour alliance (Committee of National Solidarity-KSN) against union-busting as well as against flexibilization or outsourcing. They have been trying to combat union-busting through documentation, public rallies, education and legal struggles. In their experience, it has also been necessary and effective to

Abstract of presentations on trade Union repression in Asian countries

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train police in labour rights. And some legal struggles have also met with success – for example, they were able to have an employer jailed for his illegal dismissal of workers. They find national coordinated work against union-busting as a high priority and also hope that it can be taken up regionally.

In Cambodia, the ILO has worked to make Cambodia a positive instance of union freedom and decent labour standards, through the Better Factories Programme among other efforts. This has had some benefits; yet there remain many factors that allow union-busting and repression to continue in many forms. There are flexible contracts expanding, yellow unions allowed to exist, limited recognition of workers who have labour rights, grey areas and omissions in the laws which limit workers’ full right to association and collective bargaining, lack of punishment for violating employers, and police and thug use of violence to repress strikes and protests. The lack of serious consultation of workers makes the existing Arbitration Council – which effectively replaces Labour Courts which don’t exist yet in Cambodia – a vehicle to impose low wages that workers have trouble to live upon. In this situation, progressive organized workers such as in the Cambodian Labour Confederation seek more ways to organize and unite workers, more ways to conduct legal struggles, and local and regional campaigns that target garment buyer brands as well as the government.

In Bangladesh, the condition of workers is very poor – not only is there a very low wage level among garment workers, who bring the largest portion of GDP for the country, but labour rights are very restricted – workers have been arrested en massed as well as beaten, when they have come out to join demonstrations and strikes to raise their wages. In such instances, it is often only the ‘right’ connections with political parties, or massive external pressure from foreign campaign groups in concert with local campaigns that have managed to help worker organizers. The workers need organizing but the strategies may differ from those in other countries. As the literacy and education level of the workers is low; most of the workers are of rural background.

In India, only 14% of workers are in the formal sector. There are over 70,000 registered unions but they mainly cater to formal sector workers. As in the rest of Asia, India has undergone a strong move towards globalization, lowering of trade barriers, flexilibization and outsourcing. Legal protections for workers, such as there have been until now, have since the late 1990s been continually eroded with legal reforms that work


against labour, in state laws and local policies. Meanwhile, some of the same laws that were once interpreted in courts in workers’ favour, have been lately interpreted in the favour of employers rather than workers.

As in other countries in Asia, workers face some of the most brutal repression when struggling to assert their basic labour rights – wages, work conditions, and the right itself to assembly and collective bargaining. They get beaten with weapons by police and thugs, arrested and jailed, and faced with other physical and non-physical forms of repression.

In South Korea, unions in 1987 boomed and contributed greatly to the democratic movement of the time, but they have been severely under pressure and lost their legitimacy after the IMF financial crisis in 1997 and related legal reforms, that pushed ‘irregular work’ to increase limited formal workers’ and unions’ rights, and divided workers between regular and irregular. In 2002 to 2008, effectively 1.2 million jobs were lost and re-hiring were almost all in precarious irregular jobs – while some jobs were given to migrants, who have meanwhile increased in the country. The percentage of irregular workers could not rise above 50% of the workforce for the last ten years. The government has been thorough in bringing all its administrative and physical (military) power to bear to repress unions and worker organizing. As workers have been ground to their most precarious and unprotected conditions, workers are driven to act. This serves to leave no barrier for corporations to profit from domestic labour, an aim strongly promoted by the US and IMF and related international organizations. Workers struggle hard in a wide range of ways, avoiding legal punishment often in spite of legal risks: one-man protests, strikes (which get punished even when legal), urgent appeals. The intention of the government to restrict civil and labour rights of workers is strong and expected to continue. In this situation, the mainstream union confederation is militant yet still strongly tending to focus on regular workers and fail to strongly organize irregular workers and women. The unity of regular and irregular workers, of male and female workers organizing, and of local and migrant workers is essential and an area where international organizations and networking could give inspiration and support.

In China, a major factor affecting workers’ ability to freely associate and bargain for their labour rights and work conditions, is the single official trade union, the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU). The state insists on the ACFTU being the only legitimate body that can play the role of unions. However, the ACFTU generally protects the interests of capital

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and only upon pressure from below – of workers’ direct actions – does the ACFTU generally take up its role to advocate for workers’ rights. Workers’ indeed maintain the capacity to assemble and take effective actions to solve their problems of wages, working hours and work conditions. They have further demanded, in the case of Honda, the right to elect workers to the ACFTU and have a representative that heeds their needs. Nevertheless, the state continues in large degree to defend the interests of capital, and mobilizes subtle and not so subtle methods to repress genuine worker-led organizing and activism. Such state tactics include surveillance, harassment or prevention of meetings, and deprivation of official legal status (of NGOs that serve workers). At the worst, workers are beaten, abducted, or jailed. Workers use various means to organize ‘around’ the barriers put before them, including maintaining personal connections with the government, using mobile phones to inform workers of a strike, with enough key information to stay safe, and others, gained through repeated successes of worker actions, combined with increased awareness of their power and their legal rights.

For the presentations from each country as well as the Q&A after each of them, see Section V. Country Presentations on Trade Union Repression in Asian Countries.


After two days of sharing and discussion, the participating activists regarded it as a priority to establish the common understanding and analysis of the reasons behind repression of trade unions and worker organizing, before proceeding to joint campaigning. The following analysis was agreed by the participants.

Summary of participants’ Analysis on trade Union repression in Asia

IV

Currently in Asia, the rights of workers to freely assemble, form unions and collectively bargain have been deprived by indirect as well as direct means; in nearly all countries, to some degree, asserting collective bargaining rights and the right to join unions means risking at the least one’s job and livelihood, and at the worst, one’s very life. Violence against trade unionists and worker organizers is carried out with impunity particularly in countries such as the Philippines, Bangladesh, China, India and South Korea.

The present low in the cycles of struggle for workers’ rights and workplace democracy, is within a historical context. At the onset, the WTO promised to lift the capitalists and countries out of perennial crises. This saw governments particularly of third world countries not just subscribing to its neo-liberalization and globalization policy implementation but outdoing each other to become more competitive – i.e., more attractive to foreign and local capital investors.

Patent in governments’ moves to attune their countries to the WTO and ensure that policy changes are legally acceptable, are the so-called legal and judicial reforms. These reforms saw the passing of laws that liberalized trade and foreign investments to allow ‘multinational

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corporations to move wherever the labour is cheaper and ‘disciplined’ (i.e. docile) and prospects for maximum profits are high.

Parallel with this is the tightening of union restrictions, more labour flexibilization and restrictions of people’s civil liberties which included filing of criminal charges against workers and trade unionists on actions related to the exercise of the right to freedom of association.

neoliberalization brings corporate profit over people’s welfareNeoliberalization – itself a result of the inherent crisis of capital – did not in fact, lift poor countries out of poverty after decades of implementation, but instead has pushed the people deeper into destitution and an incomparable climate of repression.

The workers and people of India, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Cambodia, Indonesia, China and even the relatively affluent South Korea, for instance, continue to witness how the WTO regime and neoliberalization has opened and continuously pushed more at the floodgate for huge corporations to rule the world in various ways at all levels – at the cost of the lives and basic freedoms of the majority of workers.

With prompting from multilateral finance institutions like the International Monetary Fund, World Bank and Asian Development bank, debtor third world governments, opened export processing zones, or special economic or free trade zones in the region, to attract foreign investments and supposedly generate employment – in spite of the fact that generally these zones prohibit union and organizing activities and heavily punish them. Capitalizing comparative advantages offered by each country and region, EPZs have mushroomed. According to data from the ILO, worldwide EPZs have mushroomed from 79 in 1975 to 3,500 in 2006. In Asia there were over 900 EPZs in 2006, not counting those in bonded warehouses in Bangladesh where over 3 million workers work in EPZ-like conditions(ILO data on export processing zones (Revised), April 2007). In China for instance, an EPZ was first set up in 1979, and EPZs increased in number to 500 (OECD) in 1996 and 2,700 by 2003 (ILO). In India, the first EPZ was set up in 1965 and their number swelled to 726 approved ‘special economic zones’ (replacing the EPZs) by 2010, and in the Philippines, EPZs went from 8 in the 1990s to 230 this year (2010).


destruction of jobs, to be only partially replaced with precarious jobsContrary to propaganda that liberalization creates jobs, it in fact destroys regular or permanent jobs and replace them with temporary, flexible, interim or more exploited casual, agency and student-trainees or student workers. This means that jobs generated in hundreds of SEZs in the region simply replace or are not even enough to replace the previous jobs destroyed. This radical change in employment schemes has brought an unprecedented rise in unemployment in nearly all countries, which the ILO estimated to 212 million in 2009 – following an unprecedented increase of 34 million compared to 2007. Parallel with increasing joblessness, is the increase in the share of workers in vulnerable employment (own account and contributing family workers) worldwide, which is estimated to reach over 1.5 billion – equivalent to over half (50.6 per cent) of the world’s labour force. (ILO, Global Employment Trends January 2010).

The alarm that unemployment brings to workers is not confined to the actual jobs lost, but also in the impact it has on workers who ‘are considered lucky’ to hold on to their jobs. Unemployment depresses wages, and opens the door to cuts on benefits and services, as queues of workers desperately wanting jobs are forced to accept conditions however bad they are, just to get employed. As the number of jobless and hungry grows day in and day out, so do the peoples’ discontent and restlessness.

MigrationTo stem the rising tides of protests, governments saw in migration the immediate answer. Governments of poor countries took upon themselves the responsibility to peddle their own workers like pimps in countries and capitalists in developed countries choking on shortage of cheap labour. Aided by government advertisements of jobs availability abroad, workers from Bangladesh, India, China and the Philippines for instance migrate to different countries like in South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore both legally and illegally in search for jobs with higher pay to lift their families out of poverty. Far from what they expect, migrant workers are forced to work longer with a quarter to a half of what local workers get and are expected to be less complaining compared to relatively higher-paid local workers that capitalists are avoiding by relocating in the SEZs in other countries. In addition, they become targets of harsh competition

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and racial discrimination inside and outside the household, workplaces and even of local unions in host countries.

Whilst migrant workers fill in the shortage for cheap labour and are subjected to abuses, they in fact enable capitalists in host countries like Korea to survive their crisis and expand their capital particularly in the Asian region. In addition, overseas workers allow their sending countries to temporarily weather the crisis through their remittances.

Neoliberalization does not only thrive from cheap labour of foreign migrant workers but also from internal migrants or workers coming from rural areas to work in the economic zones within a country. In China for example, there are estimated 150-200 million rural migrant workers or what they called ‘floating population,’ half of whom are women moving and working all over China. Like their foreign counterparts, internal migrants become objects of overt and violent discriminations, such as separate rural and urban registrations, caste divisions and fundamentalism. They also don’t have access to services, from their own government, of from corporations they work for. They are also intimidated by local workers and union members whose wage increases and benefits are threatened by their presence.

increased militarism, and state fascismPerhaps the most disquieting feature of neoliberalism is the unrestrained increase in the use of police and military might to quell distress and protests over unemployment, loss of economic benefits and suppression of rights to organize and assemble. In countries such as the Philippines, Indonesia and Cambodia, under the guise of maintaining economic and social stability and countering terrorism, workers and unionists, men and women, who are fighting for wage increases, humane conditions at work, and right to unionize are beaten, arrested, detained, abducted or forcibly disappeared and even killed with impunity. To sow further fear, union activists are vilified and unionism is equated with communism or terrorism that needs to be crushed and stopped. Similar inhumane tactics are used in Bangladesh, India and even OECD member country, South Korea.

Despite the violence and naked force inflicted upon workers, both state and capitalists still fail to stop the resistance against liberalization. Thus, attacks on the latter become more organized and systematic exacting heavy losses on trade union movement. At the shopfloor level, unionists are dismissed en masse, fabricated criminal charges are filed and leaders


are subjected into intensified surveillances. These have strong impacts even in countries like India where trade unions have had established political power. Capitalists seem not to run out of tactics and spend a lot to weaken the morale and dissuade workers from organizing. The old tactic of dividing workers by supporting yellow unions remains prevalent but are now augmented by consultancy firms engaged in multi-activities such as so-called values formation for workers and cultural gimmicks to co-opt workers and unionists into submission. When all these fail, capitalists simply shut down operation and relocate consequently reversing the gains the workers movement has achieved in the long years of struggle. In China, only the state union ACFTU is considered legitimate, thus isolating independent unions and stifling collective bargaining. Local government and companies use various less violent means to repress independent organizing and mobilization. But ultimatel, they also do mobilize police and thugs to end workers’ collective actions.

No amount of repression could really stop the exploited workers from resisting. And their very own experiences teach them to discover more creative ways not just to survive but keep their battles alive. There are tactics and strategies being made and continuously being developed but still they remain wanting. Thus, never in the history of workers movement that persistent organizing and solidarity from the shopfloor to the international level becomes as more urgent as today.

We hope that in 2011 through greater awareness of their common repression of their labour rights, and regional sharing, workers will be able to succeed in organizing and in rejecting their subjugation for the sake of private profits.

The following is a detailed record of the presentations shared by labour unions and NGOs regarding trade union repression and repression of worker organizing in seven Asian countries, including Q&A.

V

Country Presentations Regarding Trade UnionRepression in Asia

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Trade unions and Philippine societyHistorically, trade unions in the Philippines were not just focused on wages and workplace benefits, but were militant and progressive. They sought comprehensive rights for the working class and independence of the Philippines. Trade unions were a core part of anti-colonial and anti-dictatorship struggle. Because of their militancy, unions have been recognized as influential and powerful in society, able to bring about change; yet their very power and potential have brought counter-reaction and repression, not only gains.

Gains were made in that the government actively pushed for the establishment of unions as requirement for more acceptable domestic and international policies and relations, but this resulted in the polarization of the trade union movement (e.g. the Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP) was established in 1975 as a showcase of union freedom in the country and others were coopted into it.) Those unions later were used as a counter-force against the more independent and militant unions until today.

PhilippinesDaisy Arago Center for Trade Union and Human Rights, Inc.

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Current state of trade unionismNow, in the Philippines, there are 1.35 million, out of the 38 million in the workforce, who are unionized.

There are 16,108 unions in the private sector, with 1,334,919 members, or 4% of the labour force. There are 1,481 collective bargaining agreements – covering 243,725 workers or 12% of the unionized. There are 20,170 workers associations with 752,201 members, but they don’t have collective bargaining power. There are also 10 labour centres, and 7,173 independent unions.Yet several factors have been contributing to the declining strength of unions. These are:

massive labour flexibilization and informalization of the economy as • a result of globalizationpolicy of ‘No Union, No Strike’ – not only in SEZs at the local and • national, and company and industrial levelPolitical repression and integration of labour relations into counter-• insurgency programme

Trade unionism in written laws – nice on paper

Philippines is one of the • first countries in the world that has signed and ratified International Human Rights Conventions: UDHR, ICCPR, ILO Conventions (8 core ILO conventions)In 1987, after People Power, • fundamental freedoms including right to organize unions, collectively bargain and right to strike are incorporated and guaranteed by the 1987 Philippine ConstitutionEven the Philippine • Economic Zone Act guarantees that workers’ rights are non-negotiable


highly repressive labour relations and industrial climate based on • government premise that it is capital which matters, over workers

1. Trade unionism in practice: characteristics of union repressionLegal barriers to union organizing

Labour laws were imposed during martial rule, which:allow only one union in one company- plant-based unionism and • bargainingtighten rules on union registration • virtually prohibit strikes, by imposing cooling off periods and other • requirementsthe use the ‘Assumption and Jurisdiction’ power by the Department • of Labor and Employment, which gives legal authority to use police and military in labour disputes

Further legal barriers include:prostitution of legal system to criminalize acts arising from labour • disputes such as filing of various criminal charges against unionists; illegal strikeslaws strengthening flexibilization since Philippines became a WTO • member in 1995

2. Company’s calculated moves to bust unionsa. for organized or newly-organized unions

massive dismissal of union officers, (outright and constructive)• suspension • threats of closure • soft tactics (i.e. bribery)• surveillances •

b. for unions who are in the process of election or collective bargainingIn addition to the above, closures

Organizing or financing company sponsored unions until the period • of bargaining expired and new union election (certification election is held)coercion (i.e forcing unionists to resign)• filing of various cases•

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c. Before and during of strikethose mentioned above• naked force and violence ; use of police, private guards, goons and • military

3. Naked violence and force that cuts across various stages of union formationa. Corporate and government anti-union policy

attacks on strikes and other concerted workers action legalized • through the Assumption Power by the Secretary of Dept of Labor and whatever legal recourse they could manufacturecorporations paying military to conduct anti-union activities such as • forums, surveillances, harassments etc.

b. Integration of labour and industrial relations into counter-insurgency programme

surveillances, threats and intimidation on unionists and organizers: • by using the Spy Intelligence Network to pre-empt unionismmilitarization which is characterized by naked military interference • in union affairs and creation of Spy Intelligence Network inside the companies and industrial enclaves and; military takeover of union affairs includes the army running the union meeting and preparing CBA proposal and agreementsabduction and enforced disappearances• extrajudicial killings•

CTUHR responseThere are different levels of responses to trade union and organizing-related violence from the state and corporations:

1. Immediate or short term response to violenceuse of QRT mechanisms: Sectoral and Multisectoral alliances• urgent appeals campaign and follow-up• immediate filing of cases at the Commission on Human Rights (CHR)•

2. Medium term and long-term responses – continuing education and campaigning supported by the documentation

More will be described and discussed in Focus on QRT.


Rudy Bela and Dante Morales Arago Cabuyao Workers’ Alliance

Trade unions’ response

1. Immediate or short-term response to violence legal servicing – assisting workers who have been victimized to find a. recourse legally

b. on-site investigationquick reaction team• fact finding mission•

c. condemnation or indignation rally

2. Medium- and long-term responses – continuing campaign supported by the documentation

media advisory and press statementsa. b. campaignsc. lobbying the House of Representativesd. dialogue with government agencies such as the Department of

Labor and Employment, the municipal or provincial governmente. education

basic workers rights • genuine trade unionism•

f. trainingsparalegal training• shop steward course•

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g. trade union and human rights workshopsCARHRIHL (Comprehensive Agreement for the Respect of • International Humanitarian Law)CASER (Comprehensive Agreement on Social Economic Reform)•

h. being pro-active by organizingi. machinery buildings amongst workersj. industry-based alliance

GATELA (Garment and Textile Labor Alliance)• SEWA (Semiconductor and Electronics Workers Association)• CARAID (Car and Autoparts Workers Alliance against Imperialist • Domination)

k. territorial-based allianceCAWAL (Calamba Workers Alliance)• AMEN (Alyansa ng Manggagawa sa Enklabo, or Alliance of Workers • in the Enclaves)ALMAPILA (Alliance of Workers in the Province of Laguna) •

l. issue-based allianceKamit (Unity of Illegally Dismissed Workers) • Unity for 125 (minimum wage issue)•

m. multi-sectoral organizations

Questions and Comments Worker preconceptions that block organizingA-lung We face not only the problem of government, but With workers

themselves. They believe they can have better lives by becoming supervisors.

Daisy It’s propaganda by the government that unions make companies close.

Alliance-building; organizing discreetlyDaisy We also organize thru alliances. If some workers cannot attend

education, we provide them a pocket-sized reference regarding their basic rights. We also use SMS-based reporting. Our organizing is very discreet; you only can only go out in the open when you are strong.

Data collection about violationsDongay Do you have data on extrajudicial killings (EJKs)? How do you

response to each case of EJK?


Focus on QRTA Quick Response Team (QRT) is a mechanism or system that empowers workers to handle violent incidents, actual and physical, which can be activated before, during or after an incident, such as arrest, detention, or dispersal.

A point person is assigned in each worker centre. They respond and inform CTUHR of any incident.

Daisy Yes, our organization collects information about various labour violations and we work with other unions and groups that also collect the cases. We have Quick Response Teams to respond to every case; I will tell more about that later.

Organizing by whom?Deck-joong I am curious of your organizing ways. Who initiates the

organizing – the center or workers themselves? Please explain more in detail of your successful results?

Rudy First, we do contact building. We seek help from organized unions. They will go to other companies to see the possibility of organizing.

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Principles and tasks of Quick Response Team (QRT)a. What is it and why have it?

A QRT is a group of individuals that is immediately convened and dispatched to provide immediate legal and humanitarian assistance to individuals or groups who had been arrested, abducted or extra-judicially killed or injured in violent dispersals or demolitions by authorities or their agents or other armed groups that are directly or indirectly associated with authorities.

The QRT can be dispatched before, during or after the incidents to serve as:

paralegal• paramedic• documentation team• a communication or media team•

The size of the team varies depending on the gravity of the case and the area where it is dispatched. E.g. if going to a military base outside, don’t go in a group of less than 50, or the team may come back fewer in number! In Manila, it must be less in number or you will be charged.

b. Specific objectives and tasks QRTIn case of arrest: Protect the rights of persons arrested, by ensuring that 1. they will not provide self-incriminating information that can be used for filing (fabricated evidence), and other violations such as torture, coercion, harassment, and other violations. At a minimum, QRT members should know the Miranda Rights or rights of the arrested.To facilitate an immediate release through combination of legal 2. and metalegal tactics,1 to avoid the filing of formal charges as far as possible.

c. Tasks in QRTCoordinate with the organization where the arrested belongs to 1. advice and get suggestions on next possible action/sDocument possible human rights violations; get a sworn statement 2. even if the person is still not sure to file cases (this is also included in the

1 Metalegal tactics are actions taken by an individual or a group beyond the confines of the law or what the law specifically defines as allowed or legal, but which is not outside the law. These are tactics that the law is silent about or does not say whether it it is illegal or prohibited. Often the reference here is one of the international human rights instruments that countries have signed and ratified.


training CTUHR provides). The documentation team won’t be involved in the striking team, or the police may mistake you for being a striker.Stem the arrested person’s fear, provide them with immediate needs 3. and arrange a communication lines with their families

Furthermore:In case of abduction, if QRT is dispatched in case of abduction: the 4. task is to trace the circumstances and locate the abductee in police stations or military camps. Immediately, create media attention to deter a much worse scenario.In case of extrajudicial killings (EJKs), if QRT is dispatched for 5. EJK cases: the main objective is, gather evidence that will point to perpetrators, provide assistance to the families and provide suggestions or elements for publicizing the case to call for justice ormally a big number of team members is mobilized). In case of real or expected violent dispersal of a collective action, 6. QRT dispatched before and during a rally, strike, etc. where violence could be expected to:

monitor movements of suspicious people; document and coordinate • with the leaders of the action for security and safety of the whole group; QRT also serves as paralegal – assist in the negotiation with the • police and authorities

In case of arrest, if there is an arrest, follow them to the station, and 7. ensure the implementation of the tasks mentioned above. In case of injury, if there is an injured person, provide first aid 8. or bring them to the hospital. Ensure that you get a medical legal certificate later. Get a sworn statement from the victim. They are useful for cases and campaigns afterwards.In all cases, immediately coordinate with CTUHR or main organization 9. for other assistance required. Do not leave the arrested until s/he is released, or inquest is completed. Close coordination with other organizations is vital, as well as people sticking to their given role within the QRT.

Basic requisites for QRT membersTo be able to perform the above tasks, members of the QRT must be:

physically and psychologically fit, so that you will not give additional • concern to the team and that you will not be a subject of another QRT.

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CommentsIndonesiaSastro Major challenge for unions is ‘communist’ stigmaIn Indonesia also, we have the problem of the stigma of being communist.

The way we fight it is, KASBI also joins religious activities to show less stigma. To fight social stigma, documentation is very important. Also, you really need to understand the law.

PhilippinesRudy We don’t only respond to incidents, but we always continue fighting

against legal charges that workers face when they protest or exercise their trade union rights.

have completed a basic paralegal training. • be creative and flexible in handling every situation• be cool, not aggressive but bold and vigilant • act and dress respectably. QRT team must be seen as professional • and keep a distance.disciplined, reliable and dependable •

Ideally QRT team members should have legal knowledge, and negotiation skills (ideally a lawyer and/or an individual with high stature in society). CTUHR provides training for this.

During strikes unions also invite CTUHR which joins planning so that the workers’ positions are safe and good communication is established, including scouting for safety in advance.

The team member must have their things to take to police station. Everyone must play their role and stick to it. The food giver gives food; the lawyer helps with legal training.

Church and politicians, lawyers and doctors also get called in, to add weight to the QRT. But one still mustn’t go immediately without coordinating with the organization in the region.


InCIDEnTArrest and detention, violent dispersal o union busting. Victims, witness or informant will report to local

union/organization or federations

Local org or federation can handle

YESImmediately respond

CTUHR could also ask assistance from other organizations

Local unions will send report to CTUHR

HR point person or paralegal will assist or document

nOpoint person will communicate with CTUHR to organize and dispatch a QRT

Flow chart on QRT mechanism in the Philippines 1

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CTUHR and point person from local organizations or areas/ other sectors could also be mobilized to assist. Logistics are simultaneously prepared. Briefing and distribution of individual tasks, unification on rules and discipline, actual conduct of mission

QRT goes to the place of incident, or police stations, detention while other member is left at the office to take care of media and public info dissemination

Arrested and subsequently released

If details are required, CTUHR does an initial inquiry

no, next steps take over

All data and information go back to the workers or local organizations in the form of reports or publication etc.

Evalaute the situation and plan the steps auntil the situation settled.

CTUHR records and process data and information in the form of press releases, reports and campaign papers

YES, QRT submits a report and evaluate the mission. All info gathered forms part of documentation.

Flow chart on QRT mechanism in the Philippines 2


We found out that it is more or less the same in Indonesia as with the Philippines as regards the trade union repression. Before speaking about freedom of association (FoA), let me speak of the history of the labour movement in Indonesia. In the time of Sukarno, we had strong labour unions. We used to have pro-labour Laws No. 22 and 57.

In September 1965, when Suharto came to power, this situation drastically changed. The unions and the communist party – Partai Komunis Indonesia (PKI) – was devastated by the regime. Half a million people were kidnapped and killed. Militarism came to power in control of society. This regime also established its own yellow union (SPSI) which still exists until today.

During the Suharto era, FoA was suppressed. There was a big case of killing in 1993 of a woman, Marsinah, because of her union activism.

After 1998, students led the democratization and Suharto fell in 1998. Apart from this, it was also the Asian financial crisis and lots of capital flight from Indonesia. Market flexibilization happened and enabled the government to control unions.

Anwar ‘Sastro’ Mar’ufWorking People’s Association (PRP)translated by Fahmi Panimbang

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After the Reform Era, there is a weakening of pro-government unions. Since then, KASBI (Kongres Aliansi Serikat Buruh Indonesia, or Congress of Indonesia Unions Alliance) has become legally recognized. Before KASBI, there were only three confederations in Indonesia. I became a member of KASBI. There are 91 federations nationwide affiliated with four national confederations.

Since the Reform Era, Indonesia has a better labour law which enables workers to establish unions. The minimum is 10 persons in a company to establish a union, and the government also makes use of this provision. We formed the Committee of National Solidarity – Komite Solidaritas Nasional (KSN) – which consists of workers and unions who are victims of union-busting. We started with data collection which we started with airline service unions. (See our paper (p. 4), which gives data on patterns of trade union repression.)

There is good news of how we progressed in our alliance KSN, in that we could unite the blue and white-collared workers. We can now organize state-owned unions, radicalize them and let them join our unions. They also protest against globalization and labour flexibilization.

Since we are aware that union-busting is done by the government, we do data collection, campaign, propaganda, etc. Aside from these, we also attack or pressure the industrial court which resulted in some seven successful cases. We even sent one employer to jail for illegally dismissing his workers.

Lastly, besides, we also pressure the state apparatus (e.g. police), as we realize that most of them do not know labour rights.

To strengthen our alliance, we build local and national struggles. We also set up clearing houses to know our struggles and for their reporting.Restrictions on the trade union rights of civil servants remain in place, and private sector workers continue to be confronted with a whole battery of anti-union measures when they attempt to defend their rights.

Question and commentsComparing Philippines and IndonesiaKim, Young-gon I have the impression that in comparing Indonesia to the

Philippines, the former labour movement is in better condition. Is this true?


Sastro Yes, it might be a superficial impression. But it is not better. Capital now focuses on local and rural areas. The killings decreases in urban areas. There is a systematic shift of government using gangsters such as Islamic hardcores. In the rural areas, there is an increase of extrajudicial killings of peasants, fishermen.

Daisy You were able to imprison one employer. In the Philippines, we haven’t sent even one employer to prison. I think we should learn from your experience.

International aid to stop union-bustingApo Do you have international work regarding your issues on union

busting?Sastro We have been working with Amnesty International in the campaign

against union busting cases. AI also was able to pressure the government and fix labour conflict. We also find the international work important in this meeting.

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Trade Union Rights in LawFreedom of association. Civil servants are excluded from exercising this right. While workers are free to form and join trade unions under the 1997 Labour Law, this does not apply to domestic staff or civil servants, including teachers, judges and military personnel. Personnel working in air and maritime transportation are not fully subject to the law but are free to form unions.

The Labour Law requires unions and employers’ organizations to file a charter and list of officials with the Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training (MOLVT). The Bureau of Labour Relations is responsible for facilitating union registration and the application for ‘most representative’ status.

Excessive eligibility criteria: Article 269 of the Labour Code provides that union leaders must have been engaged in the occupation their union represents for at least one year. This restricts a union’s right to choose their own representatives and deprives it of the skills or experience it may not have within its own ranks. The law also requires that union leaders be at least 25 years of age, must be able to read and write, and have no criminal record.

CambodiaHorng VuthyCambodian Labour Federation

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Restrictions on the right to strike: The law guarantees the right to strike but limits that right by imposing a minimum service requirement in all enterprises, regardless of whether they are public utilities or not, and regardless of whether they exceed the need to comply with statutory safety requirements. Workers who are required to provide a minimum service but stay out on strike are considered guilty of serious misconduct.

The requirements that must be fulfilled for a strike to be considered legal are also quite cumbersome. Therefore, they are frequently ignored by workers. Disputes must be first subjected to labour conciliation conducted by an inspector of the MOLVT, who has 15 days to seek a settlement. If there is no mutually satisfactory result, the dispute must be submitted to the tripartite Arbitration Council for investigation and a decision, which also must come within 15 days of the dispute being referred to the Council. During the period when the MOLVT is conciliating, or the Council is considering the case, it is illegal to strike.

For a strike to be legal, the union must obtain a majority in secret balloting of its members and give seven days’ advance notice to the employer and the MOLVT. If the enterprise is engaged in what the government considers an ‘essential service’, then the law stipulates that the waiting period must be a minimum of 15 days.

Collective bargaining. The law obliges the employer to negotiate collective bargaining agreements with unions that have been granted ‘most representative’ status, and bargain with minority unions on issues covering members of that union. The employer must meet with representatives designated by the union. Negotiators are protected by law and are entitled to full pay during the negotiations.

A ministerial regulation promulgated at the end of 2004 has caused significant problems for unions. The regulation allows third parties (such as employers or another union) to challenge the majority union’s petition for ‘most representative’ status. By filing these challenges, management or employer groups or pro-management unions can tie up majority union’s time and its resources, and prevent it from negotiating a collective bargaining agreement.

Who represents the workers? Another major problem in law is caused by confusion between the role of shop stewards and labour union leaders. Each workplace with over eight employees must have a shop steward.

Shop steward elections are held at the factory, and the law provides that employers are the ones who must organize them.


It gives representative unions the right to nominate the shop stewards to stand for election but oftentimes, stewards are elected before a union is organized in a factory.

Article 284 gives shop stewards the duty to present employers with issues related to grievances and wages, and to enforce the labour law and collective agreements. These are functions that rightfully belong to the hands of elected trade union leaders.

In a number of cases, employers have used factory representatives (who are elected for two years and cannot be forced out) to block the path of unions to the bargaining table, because shop stewards are the only worker representatives with legally enforceable bargaining rights. Labour law fails to provide a similarly enforceable right for trade union leaders.

The Ministry of Labour and Vocational Training has recently proposed an amendment to Article 67 of the Cambodian Labour Law that could further weaken the position of trade union leaders. The amendment would effectively allow for an unlimited use of fixed duration contracts, as long as no single contract is longer than two years.

It will open up the possibility of abusing short-term contracts by allowing employers to arbitrarily dismiss trade union leaders, simply by not renewing their contracts.

Non-renewal of short-term contracts of trade union leaders and activists is currently one of the leading causes of disputes and strikes. The Arbitration Council has interpreted the law to require that employees who have worked for an employer for two years must be treated as permanent employees.

If the amendment is adopted it will explicitly make the indefinite use of short-term contracts legal and they are likely to increase substantially. The ILO has already warned the government about the need to withdraw the amendment.

Trade union rights in practice and violationsPrime Minister Hun Sen’s Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) consolidated its power following the July 2008 elections, but these did not meet international probity criteria, notably due to the ruling party’s virtual monopoly of the media. Trade unionists, human rights defenders, journalists and opposition supporters continue to face many forms of repression, including murder. As a result, only a small proportion of the total labour force is unionized,

AMRC • CTUHR44

and outside the garment and tourism or hospitality sectors, the trade union movement remains very weak. Most workers have little or no knowledge of trade unions, or of their labour rights.

Trade union rights violated with impunity: ILO projects such as the Better Factories initiative have contributed to improving working conditions and respect for freedom of association in Cambodia’s main industry, the garment sector. In spite of such initiatives and the efforts of certain international buyers, much still remains to be done before employers widely accept unions as partners to be engaged with as equals.

In many factories, trade unionists continue to face repression of all kinds including beatings, death threats, blacklisting, false accusations to bring them before the courts, wage deductions and exclusion from promotion, etc. The government very rarely prosecutes or takes measures against an employer for anti-union practices. In many instances, the Ministry of Labour’s advice is for workers to take their case to court – which is costly and ineffective – or to accept cash settlements from employers. Labour inspectors are poorly trained and – given their low pay – open to bribery. In cases where the MOLVT does rule in favour of the workers, it rarely uses its legal authority to penalize employers who fail to follow its orders.

There is violence and death threats against trade unionists. The hiring of thugs is a tactic regularly used to scare workers who are fighting for trade union rights.

Yellow unions. The establishment of yellow unions is another tactic deployed by some Cambodian companies to prevent the emergence of bona fide workers’ representatives.

Shorter employment contracts for unionists. Trade union members were frequently being hired on short-term employment contracts to discourage any kind of trade union activity.

Trade unionists are dismissed from work. In the absence of a government that offers any real protection for trade union rights, some employers summarily dismiss workers identified as trade union activists.

There are still no labour courts. The Cambodia Labour Code of 1997 provides in Articles 387, 388, and 389 that a system of labour courts shall be created to rule on ‘individual disputes occurring between workers and employers regarding the execution of the labour contract


or the apprenticeship contract’. There were continued worker appeals to the government to set up the Labour Court, but these petitions were disregarded.

The Arbitration Council, a tripartite body established under the labour law, has effectively substituted the labour courts. The council is widely respected for its even-handed and impartial investigations and rulings. However, its decisions are not final, and employers found to have engaged in anti-union discrimination usually appeal against the council’s decisions in the provincial courts.

Strikes are suppressed. The government generally tolerates strikes, but the police do not hesitate to use violence and make arrests, especially when protests are held outside the workplace. Company security guards are also responsible for violently repressing strikes. Furthermore, the connivance between some employers and the police can be enough to dissuade workers from going on strike.

Collective bargaining is difficult, and only a few unions have achieved an enforceable agreement.

Forms of trade union repression and their impactEmployers generally employ the following forms of trade union repression:

comfort workers not to join with trade unions• do not offer enough work to do• do not allow to work over time as other workers• regularly change workers’ job from one place to another place• threat on workers’ safety• break-off the contract regarding to the limitation of short contract• suspend workers’ job by telling that have no job to do• keep surveillance all activities of workers who join with trade • unionsencourage workers to use rights on strike• file a complaint to the court in order to claim the compensation and • dismiss from work and;file a complaint to Ministry of Labour to protest registration of new • existed unions.

The government on the other hand:use power to force trade unions to respect the law• repress the workers’ strike, fight and shock workers, confiscate the •

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strike equipments and dissuade union leadersvery late to solve unions’ problem• join with employers to protest the registration of union•

The impacts of these on workers organizing and successful union certification/registration:

Sang Woo Co. (Korean company) complained about the Secretary • of the trade union to the Ministry of Labour, to protest the union’s registration. When we organized again, employer also complained against Union’s President and Vice-President that this case is still going on at the court.Then they dismissed union leaders from work.The case of Meng Yan Co. is similar to the case of Sang Woo Co.•

Contributing factors that provoke and legitimize violence

use of gangsters to join with union groups• use of employers’ unions to provoke conflict with independent trade • unions in order to make accusationsuse of accusations against trade unions and use of public security • security as justification use of discriminatory tactics: silence, then stopping all communication • at the workplace andforce to stop to all unions’ activities, conduct meeting very often with • workers, keep workers in a room and don’t allow them to go out.

Countermeasures of the workerscontinue to organizing unions• file a complaint to the government on other abuses• find legal aids for supporting freedom of association• identify the buyers and other brands of export companies• Conduct national and international campaigns•

Questions and commentsOn international campaignsDaisy He mentioned about many ILO observations. For the Philippines,

there is also a campaign for International Labour. In Cambodia, do


you also have international campaigns?Vuthy Before, we only had local campaigns. But now we are trying to have

international campaign to support the cases in Cambodia.

Linking trade and labour rightsApo In Cambodia, they have the Better Factory system such as GSP – a

bilateral agreement between the US and Cambodian government. It can be utilized on the issue of garments workers.

Cambodian issue in KoreaPhil I also sent appeal letters regarding Korean companies in Korean

embassy in Cambodia. They said the arguments of the labour unions are all lies because we cannot provide evidence.

Experiences from IndonesiaSastro I just want to give a comment on the struggle of wages relating to

FoA. To me, we need also to calculate properly the cost for labour. We have an experience countering this wage issue by showing ‘decent wages’ as against minimum wage. Government always insists the latter. Of course, this is a long struggle but this is not only limited to the amount of money but a matter of fighting for rights of workers. This also happened in Europe where there is social protection decrease. For me, this is political issue. We need to be aware and struggle.

Apo Minimum wage is part the same.

Solidarity within unions (Multiple unions in one company)Apo Just to share. In HK, Gap is Asian HQ. We had a demonstration against

Gap and its HK company in support of Gap in Cambodia. Finally, Gap wants to talk to us. Of course, they make excuses. We have to verify all our data. In our data, Gap company in Cambodia has many unions. How do we resolve these union differences?

Vuthy: Until now, all unions have no characteristic to unite into one union. Some unions are looking at the profitability of the cases. There were even cases when general unions came in to destroy our strikes. But we are trying our best to settle the differences and maybe reach a compromise among the unions.

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Unions from other sectorsDaisy: Besides support from the workers, do you receive support from

other sectors on the issue?

Vuthy: Of course, we get support from other sectors. We have 7 sectors. When we had the strike, they all supported us. Human rights centers/groups (CLC) also documented the strike.In studies done in July 2010, the minimum wage should be US$75-93 per month (minimum), US$ 120-140 per month (maximum). The actual minimum wage is US$ 55 per month. The government is only giving an increase of US$6. CCAWDU did not agree with this during the negotiation that is why we launched the strike. We followed the law in conducting the strike. We received support from other nGOs and human rights organizations.One hundred sixty thousand (160,000) workers joined the first day of strike. On the second day, we have 193,000 workers joining. Because we lack the finance for the strike, we temporarily stopped the strike after the 3rd day. However, employers refused to admit the workers back to work. Police and gangsters were also used to suppress the workers. Presidents of ITUC and CCAWDU negotiated with the Ministry of Labour on november 27. nothing was reached. The employers said they incurred financial losses during the 3-day strike.


I convey my solidarity greetings from the working class in Bangladesh. We hosted a week-long education campaign against a military treaty, so please pardon me that I have not prepared for this meeting.

In the garment industry, we have 4,800 factories outside the EPZs employing 3.5 million workers, of which 80% are women. Garments contribute 76% of the total exports of Bangladesh.

We organized a big movement on minimum wage. We demanded an increase to 5,000 taka (US$75) per month as the minimum wage. The actual minimum wage is 3,000 taka. It was declared in July 29, when we organized this conference. The movement was suppressed by the police, and many were filed with criminal charges. Trade union leaders were arrested and jailed. One who works in an NGO was not allowed to sit in the negotiation, instead he was jailed. He was out on bail but with 11 criminal cases. I also was attacked and charged with many legal cases, but I was released and am safe now because the current government is a coalition government, and I belong to one of the political parties.

BangladeshAbul HossainBangladesh Garment Workers and Employees Federation

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Out of 4 leaders, only 2 persons were released from jail on bail. All charges are fabricated. But there are many workers and NGO workers in jail, and there are a lot of criminal cases still pending.

We used international solidarity from NGOs, trade unions, and human rights organisations. The government got 1,100 appeal/protests emails. Nine (9) congressmen joined and signed the protest. Without the international support, we would still be in big problem. So it is very important for us to set up regional and international cooperation.

Questions and commentsApo Referring to the minimum wage struggle, I would refer to HK. The

theory is the race to the bottom. The government in China wants to increase the wages that is why the employers are threatened to move to Bangladesh. Is the minimum wage in Bangladesh decided by a tripartite or the government.

Abul We have a wage board which is tripartite.Young-gon In Korea, the government is not focused on minimum wage. We

have US$ 600 per month.Rudy In the Philippines in the 80s, we had many garments and textiles.

As of now, they have moved out to other countries. now I know why employers are saying that workers get higher wages than in Bangladesh. Is it true?

Abul Yes, it is true that we have lower wages than the Philippines. Employers always use that argument not only with the Philippines. I think our minimum wage in Bangladesh is the lowest in the world.

A-lung So, moving out of business from Bangladesh is not an option.Abul We only have 147 best unions and more than 50 national TU centers.

The workers are much divided. Workers always have their own alliances, but on this issue of wage workers for the first time unite. Bangladesh workers are mostly illiterate, so organizing and uniting them is very hard.

Doris The influence of the foreign Chambers of Commerce and the Employers Confederations in HK are strong and organized. Is it the same in Bangladesh?

Abul International support is for the movement, not the employers.Doris Do you have one wage level system in all regions or provinces? Who

elects the union in the tripartite board?


Abul: We have 2 mechanisms on wage: national wage board for the public sector and national wage board for public sector - minimum wage board. We have automobile board, etc. In the tripartite, the representative from workers is appointed by the board.

Sastro: I want to share about the Indonesian minimum wage struggle. The wage is decided by tripartite board, but the control of it is with the mayor of the province or region, but this legitimacy is in favor of business.

Daisy: We should point out the relationship on economic rights and repression of FoA. If we are weaker, it is much more difficult for workers.

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In India workers, peasants and nationalities are also facing unimaginable repression like in Philippines. But we do not have data on how many people are killed, abducted, and jailed this year. In recent decades, incidents of repression of workers have increased dramatically. What is the reason why the employers and the state are becoming so brutal against the labour movement? Actually, the very objective of liberalization is removing all barriers of all kind to promote unrestricted capital accumulation-transferring the ownership and control of all means of production including natural resources to corporate coffers on the one hand and flexibilisation of labour on the other. They simply want to crush any voice that creates any challenge against their above objectives. Someone has rightly articulated that today, there are only two options for society: socialism or barbarism. At least it very clearly explains the present situation.

This situation is giving birth to a new wave of struggle for unionization of workers on the one hand and in response to it, corporations and the state are unleashing unimaginable repression on workers and trade unions.

IndiaSurendra PratapAsia Monitor Resource Centre

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ITEM 2002 2003 2004 2005

No. of strikes 295 255 236 227

No. of workers involved

900,386 1,010,976 1,903,054 2,722,784

no. of mandays lost 9,664,537 3,205,950 4,828,737 10,800,686

No. of lockouts 284 297 241 229

No. of workersinvolved

179,048 804,969 169,167 190,817

no. of mandays lost 16,921,382 2,70,49,961 19,037,630 18,864,313

Workers and trade union coverageTotal workforce in India is 456 million. Eighty-six percent are informal sector workers and 14 % are formal sector workers. In the formal sector, informalisation is also rampant and about 50% are contractual, casual, or trainee workers.

There are over 70,000 registered unions, mainly representing workers from the formal sector. Total verified membership is about 2.5 crore (25.5 million) and about 30% of this is representing agricultural workers.

Shrinking legal boundaries for trade unionsIndia has neither ratified ILO convention C 87 (Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize), nor C. 98 (Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining). There is no law for compulsory recognition of trade unions. Section 10k of the Industrial Disputes Act (‘ID Act’) provides powers to the states to ban strikes or lock-outs in essential services. Section 22 of the ID Act compels to give 14 days notice before strike in public utility services. Section 23 prohibits strike during the pendency of conciliation etc.

The Trade Union Act was amended in 2002 and it made the requirement of 10% or 100 workmen of an establishment (minimum of 7) for registration of trade unions.

There are proposals to amend the labour laws particularly the most protective section guaranteeing any kind of job security or those providing space for collective bargaining.

Exemptions in labour laws are granted to special economic zones. Moreover national Industrial manufacturing zones are proposed to be established with similar exemptions in labour laws.


Even when labour laws are not amended, judicial precedents are interpreting labour laws and ruling on cases in favour of employers. Moreover, the inspection machinery is made defunct, resulting in all-round violation of labour laws by employers.

There is a new wave of workers struggle for unionization from below. The situation in formal sector is such that only by organizing themselves in a union the informal workers can transform their status as formal worker. Therefore both formal and informal workers are coming together in these struggles. On the other hand, the employers are not ready at any cost to tolerate the unions and therefore an unimaginable repression is unleashed against workers. Recent workers struggles in Hyundai Motor India Limited in Chennai, Nokia in Chennai, Madras Rubber Factory in Chennai, Nestle in Uttaranchal, Rico Auto and Sunbeam Auto in Gurgaon and Vivva Global in Gurgaon, have similar stories – workers tried to form union or after formation of union demanded for recognition, and the management responded with unleashing repression. In most cases, large numbers of workers were thrown out and in many cases, the management declared indefinite lock-out. (See table on page 54)

The Case of Rico Auto workers struggleOn August 04, 2009, the workers filed application for registration of the union, thereafter the repression started. On September 21, 2009, management resorted to a lock-out. One hundred fifty bouncers, police and security guards of the company launched a brutal attack on workers. The protest continued and repression also continued. In the meantime, trade unions of Gurgaon also came out clearly in support of Rico workers and organized solidarity protests. On October 01, 2009, AITUC General Secretary and MP Gurdas Dasgupta and another AITUC leader were detained by the police and were not allowed to participate in a protest demonstration in favour of Rico workers. On October 18, 2009, bouncers and security guards brutally attacked Rico workers using iron balls and rods. One worker Ajit Yadav received serious head injuries and died on the same day. On October 20, 2009, a solidarity strike was organized by all Gurgaon trade unions in 60 to 80 factories and about one lakh (0.1 million) workers participated in demonstration. Only after this did the state government put the pressure on the employer and a settlement was done accepting the formation and recognition of the union in the company.

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Questions and commentsSastro Is there any cooperation among the 10 national federations to deal

with trade union repression?Surendra There was a massive strike lately on minimum wage, labour laws,

etc. That these different federations come together was, for the first time, even AITUC.

Daisy How do you go about the problem of informalisation in strengthening the union?

Surendra There must be a major move to organize from national federations, the informal workers. And the latter should organize themselves. But this is not the case yet. There are on-going discussions about this. We must prepare well-equipped grassroots organizers.

Doris You mentioned there are no records on killings, missing, and jailed. This is an important work we should consider in our campaign against trade union repression to prove that what we are saying is true.


Trade union repression in SsangyongThe Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) was an early federation organized by the government. A more democratic struggle emerged in the 1970s especially led by Chun Tae-il, and the beginnings of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) came from it. In 1987 there was a boom in the labour movement – ‘the Great Workers’ Struggle’; thousands joined unions.

In 1997, workers conditions had extremely worsened again – mass layoffs, use of irregular/contract workers. Then, there was a general strike.

The Ssangyong Motors struggleFour years ago, owner of Ssangyong sold part of shares to Chinese

corporation SAIC (‘Shanghai Motors’). In January 2009, the company declared it would go into receivership. To survive, the company said it must slash 2,646 jobs, and cut wages.

The workers sought other ways, but the company would not accept, and the workers finally decided to occupy the plant. There was a 77-day

South KoreaNa, Hyun-phil (‘Phil’) Korean House for International Solidarity

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struggle. And during that time, the management hired private goons, and the state riot police also helped to fight the workers by cutting off water, food, electricity, and medical help, and pressuring the families with threats of arrest and huge monetary fines.

The brutality and absoluteness of the repression was extreme: use of huge forces (chemicals, helicopters, taser guns, large number of police), refusal to provide water and medical care.The government clearly put the ‘rule of private property’ above the ‘obligation to defend human lives’.

The struggle of workers just for their livelihood was called ‘illegal violence’ by the government and company. Meanwhile, the company’s legal violations were ignored.

Since the struggle ended, the company did not keep its side of the agreement. Meanwhile, union members are still being persecuted, many are in jail or undergoing trial.

Overall right now, the right to organize and wage standards are low; companies strongly try to keep workers as contractual and irregular. They also use migrant workers. It is still hard to get unity among different types of workers.

Trade unions are still mainly regular and organized while irregular worker strikes are very long.

Kim, Young-gonCenter to Get Back Teacher Status for Lecturers & Normalization of University

Economic situation in KoreaSouth Korea is highly dependent on foreign economies. Also, a large portion of shares in South Korean companies are held by foreign companies – 30% of market capitalization.

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The United States and IMF and other international organizations interfere with the decision-making of Korea. The influence of foreign capital is strong, and the enterprises are closely related to political power,while medium & small businesses and their workers are disregarded.

The public tends to accept the logic that exports are needed to boost the economy, and accept the suppression of trade unions.

The President Kim Daejung & Rho Muhyun respected the legal system relatively but their policies were capital-friendly. President Lee Myungbak is the former CEO of the Hyundai conglomerate, and Samsung has strong influence over this government. He denies the right to organize that workers had gotten in 1987. He has aggressively reduced the welfare budget, rejected raising taxes of the rich, and privatized public health care and social services.

Capital moves overseas when the labour movement gets active in Korea and seeks for places where worker’s wages are low and environmental regulation is lax. The Korean businesses’ transfer overseas have increased, while foreign capital’s domestic investment has declined. During 2002-2008, 1.3 million jobs were effectively lost. The industries that are not easy to relocate overseas, import migrants.

Union powerKCTU has strong unity internally and is a social force for defending workers’ rights but it has not strongly corrected the situation of irregular and women workers.

Total irregular workers are 8.5 million people. The percentage of temporary workers among all workers is 50% and that of women is 65%. Under President Lee Myungbak, the number of dispatched workers has increased. But this is different from Japan, where dispatched workers have decreased or have been prohibited.

ChallengesCorporate anti-unionism: Samsung

The Samsung no-union policy is a major challenge for the labour movement to overcome. Samsung even denies the right to a union for workers in its subcontracting companies.

Intellectual repressionAnother aspect is the role of intellectual workers – academics. The

former dictator Park Chung-hee deprived college lecturers and instructors

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(irregular professors) of the position as ‘faculty’ in 1977. The aim of this policy was to ban resistance to the dictatorship and criticism at the university. The total number of lecturers are 2/3 of all professors and are responsible for half of lectures. Lecturers get fired as soon as they resist. Eight lecturers have committed this since 1998.

The struggle to amend the Bill of Higher Education Act in the National Assembly is still going on. We have been protesting in a tent outside the National Assembly for more than 1,000 days.

The government also has aggressively stifled media that takes any critical stance of government, even mainstream media.

Denying the right to organizeThe government has actively allowed workers to be denied their

right to organize and collectively bargain. It has made frequent use of the ‘obstruction of business’ clause in the Constitution. It has allowed companies such as Samsung to continue its no-union policy. It has terminated or violated already signed collective bargaining agreements, at the Korea Labour Institute, power, gas, rail and telephone companies. These are intended to weaken the bargaining power of unions. It is the first time since liberation in 1945.

Different types of workers such as self-employed, migrant, ‘special hire’ and so on, try to organize but the government puts technical and legalistic blocks in the way, and refuses to recognize the unions.

The government has also banned full-time paid union wages, which strongly impact on union activity.

ResponsesAs short-term responses, workers do picketing, strikes, one-man

protests, internet posting, urgent appeals, press conferences, and fact-finding trips.

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More long-term responses to overcome trade union repression are:need to upgrade the workers organization. Regular workers + irregular • workers, women, small businessmen and migrant workerssocial solidarity. This includes the solidarity of workers, peasants, • citizens, consumers, and NGOs.international solidarity: not just facing and following Russia, Cuba, • and Brazil, but also with fellow Asians.

Question and commentsDoris Introduced Kim, Deck-joong, one of the union leaders in Ssangyong

during the 77-day strike.Deck-joong At Hyundai Motors, there is self-organized group of formal

workers who worked together with irregular/informal workers. In this case, they were able to increase their members.

A-Lung KCTU is known for being militant. now there are many informal workers. What are KCTU’s processes of organizing these many informal workers? Are there still industries left in Korea that make room for organizing the workers? Are there few industries left in Korea because they are all moving out to China?

Deck-joong In 1996, conservatives were dominating the Korean legislature, they passed Restructuring/Layoffs Act and an Irregular Worker Protection Act. In 1997, KCTU struggled hard against these two Acts. Area of labour were dispatched and expanded throughout the automobile sector. Twenty-four types of jobs were allowed to use dispatch labour. This was expanded again in 2007.

Young-gon 1.3 M jobs go abroad mostly to China. The Korean workers were automatically looking for solidarity from US consumers but nothing happened.

Daisy KCTU is known for being militant and helped the Philippines in filing the workers complaint in the ILO. How does migrant workers factor into the whole trade union movement Korea?

Young-gon Migrants Trade Union (MTU) is not recognized by the Korean government.

Abul In Korea, does KCTU have a program on migrant workers? What other organizations support the migrants in Korea?

Young-gon Many nGO help migrants especially in fighting for several rights.

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Deck-joong Migrants lack the citizenship and are not allowed to form unions, so it is very difficult to organize them. There is a crackdown right now against migrants. But there are worker centers (human rights and religious institutions) which help the cause of migrants, with legal and other services and advice. Ten years ago, the migrants were called trainees and now there is the permit system. There are a lot of restrictions imposed.

Sastro I want to share two issues – migrant workers and education issues. Our organization organizes in rural areas where migrants come from. There, we conduct education before they go out of Indonesia in the hope that they join unions in the country where they will go. In education, one teachers’ organization which used to be yellow is now radicalized. The members of lecturers union in universities are suffering dismissals. How do you organize the teachers/lecturers in Korea?

Young-gon In the coming years, maybe Korea will have its own migrants because of poverty. The intellectuals in Korea see themselves high above the society like a chimney. Lecturers in Korea comprise two-thirds of the teachers in universities, while mostly migrants are coming from India and Philippines into Korea.

Daisy Young-gon mentioned the possibility of solidarity between countries with the same company. We can explore this.


In China, there is only one recognized union which is ACFTU. It must answer to both workers and the government, so it ends up not able to carry out properly the function of defending and representing the workers’ interests.

The Chinese government is not as violent as governments in the Philippines and India. It does not kill but commits harassments – e.g. complaints about NGO centres, windows and walls smashed, deprivation of legal status, restrictions on funding such as cutting support from abroad (many NGOs are supported with external funds). These seriously restrict and threaten those who try to organize workers.

There are also restrictions in representation (i.e., who can represent one legally). There are also forced detention and abductions.

There are cases of police harassment such as taking away your computer and confiscating documents. NGO workers cannot have meetings. For social security meetings, hotel management gets pressured and intimidated to accept cancellation. People are prevented from joining internal meetings.

Apo LeongConsultant, Asia Monitor Resource Centre

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We have had demonstrations outside of courts. Judges distort the law in favor of management and blacklist workers, especially leaders. We saw this in the case of jewelry company owners.

When workers (GP) complained about chemical poisoning, they were beaten up.

Survival strategiesSome workers use the strategy of keeping connections with the government. If they resort to collective action, they become vulnerable.

ProspectsThere are still shortages of workers, and workers can make gains by their actions like strikes. After some years of such experience, workers have greater awareness of their rights and their power to claim them. As the government struggles to deal with all social conflicts, it still accepts NGOs playing a role on smoothing down social frictions via social services. New policies are also coming which can help systematize workers´rights and power, such as the new law on collective bargaining (limited though it might be).

Questions and commentsComparing strikes and struggles in China and KoreaDeck-joong I have two questions. First, three years ago Shanghai Motors

invested in Ssangyong Motors and promised they would invest US$ 1M. After one year, it was not invested and the union wanted a strike. How would the reaction of the Chinese government be if they would have stopped the investment plan by a sit-down strike in Tienanmen Square? Second, in Korea we have heard there is a lot of minimum wage struggle of Chinese workers. Can you tell us more about that?

A-Lung I am pretty sure you will be arrested in not more than 3 minutes. The ACFTU will not support your struggle. If you want to complain, I recommend you go to the Un. For the second, the population of workers is going down. The young workers will go down, and old workers will go up in 2012. The young generations, they are beginning to know their rights and don’t want to go to the rural areas to work in factories.


These few years from 2004 until now, there are a lot of strikes. The government just cannot stop the strikes. The workers do not go to the streets but just sit down in the production lines. In these cases, police do not intervene since the production amount is in a big amount. Actually, the workers do not want to go to strike, they just want to protest going for overtime.

In case the government wants to maintain social stability, it has to appease the workers, like upgrading the minimum wage. Or else, the workers will go outside and block the streets. The economy in that area will be blocked if workers go out to the streets.

The government knows that the struggle of young workers is not political but economic. If it suppresses the economic struggle, it fears it might rise to political scale.

China’s union is very yellow, but they try to pretend that they are not yellow. Also the population of workers is going down; there are less young workers.

Difference between foreign and Chinese TnC repression; ACFTU; how we can help

Dongay Foreign TnCs and Chinese TnCs, is the repression different? What is ACFTU’s attitude towards repression? What kind of international solidarity will be useful for Chinese workers?

How we can help Chinese workersA-lung On international solidarity, I am sorry that China nGOs cannot

work well in organizing Chinese workers. What we need now is a lot of methods to do so, and we are lacking innovative methods. Actually, I am learning now a lot from Filipino comrades. We also want to do the formal organizing especially when ACFTU cannot monitor situations in factories, but they do surveillance outside the factories.

Chinese TNCs are worseA-lung Most of the time, the working condition of Chinese workers in foreign

TnCs is much better. Because local capitalists are much better at bribing local officials, they have the connections. The repression comes from the government and not from the corporations.

ACFTUApo ACFTU now is under pressure of the so many issues about workers,

especially with the tremendous number of strikes. There is also internal contradiction.

Monitoring from outside helps alotDaisy You mentioned that the advantage enjoyed by nGOs in China is because

the world watches over China. This is some good point we have to consider.


Our aims were to:Identify similar trends and patterns in trade union repression• Identify whether these patterns before, during, or after collective • bargaining and;Identify innovative ideas and set up organizing mechanisms at the • (a) grassroots level and (b) regional/international levels.

What points have we agreed upon and considered important?

the continuing importance of international solidarity (petitions, • appeals, protests), UN, ILOrole of migrant workers in undermining domestic labour movements; • need to include migrants in labour movementthe use of labour laws and judicial reforms in attacking workers’ • rights.the issue of • living wage is a common issue in discussing FoA, CBA, etc. It affects a lot of workers who are informal and un-unionized, who must use public assemblies to vent their opposition, but these get criminalizedmilitarism: • use of goons and police in suppressingmanagement anti-union consultancy•

Summary of Discussions

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management and government unions• against independent/militant unions and against intellectuals/university workers.casual, agency, temporary workers • affects the number of union members, weakens unions.The decline of unionism is alarming but missed out by big or national • unions due to other concerns. There is a need for union reforms. The need for integrating labour issues with the wider societal issues (‘social movement unionism’).cultural/social (e.g. dalits, caste) issues • are confused with class issues.common to every country, these oppression and rapid decline • in unions are results of implementation of liberalization, neoliberalism.need to have a deeper understanding and learnings of anti-union • strategies.

What is the common context/background that we find behind the repression of trade unions?

neoliberalism and globalization – the WTO regime• corporations rule the world• attacks on economic rights - depress wages etc. – such as in • Bangladesh, and even in countries like Korea- move of companies and jobs to China- labour law reform, legal and judiciary reforms• increase in the economic zones •

Dimensions to look at more closelyHow do we understand trade union repression? • Protest to these policies (neoliberal policies advanced by governments) result in suppression of unions and FOA What are the various means, patterns of suppression?• (e.g. how are they same or different across countries; what lessons are useful to share)shopfloor/ corporate level• non-payment of wages of unionists; dismissal of union officers• state level: who is directly involved• threats• harassment• police beatings•


On the second day, the participants analyzed together the ways that unionizing gets repressed, the underlying problems contributing to the repression, and the means that workers are using to counter it.

The forms of repression seen in each country and the strategies used against them

Philippines (Rudy) Local government use private goons to pre-empt unions. Like in Cavite, Batangas, Laguna. Local governments engage in corruption and collusion with companies and local police – the same as in China.

The Barangay captain, governor of the province. The company seeks permits; then they give the barangay projects like donating an ambulance. They help with propaganda: ‘we don’t need unions, the foreign investor will give us jobs’.

Also we experience that foreign capitalists use big law firms pay them. For example the Nograles de la Rosa Law Firm, brother of former Speaker of the House, they often file cases against workers.

Laguesma, Dagsalin, are also law firms, former DOLE secretary and executive director of conciliation and mediation work.

Indonesia (Sastro) We have the same conditions in Indonesia. Also the local government are working with the Manpower Department. Secondly,

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about our experience. It is hard to fight union-busting if there is only ONE union. We must make a big alliance at the local and also national level. In Indonesia this experience is good. We can win, only with an alliance.

Bangladesh (Abul) Many parliament members are there but none from unions. Lot of owners are in Parliament. Government sets industrial policy but in addition government tries to set up industrial policy. We should raise our voices, no industrial policy in Bangladesh.

India (Surendra) Why only for garment sector? In India: recently bouncers are engaged to repress trade unions. Unemployed youth, they are offered 2,000 Rps per day.

Detainees are brought out to repress strikes, if needed make them drunk. (In the Philippines also, young unemployed men are given such jobs.)

Cambodia (Vuthy) during the mass strike, the government just put police in each factory - 10 police in each factory. They observe what the workers do, and get advantage from the employer, sometimes taking bribes from them, to destroy the worker group. For example, Pangrae factory: when the employer wanted to take the clothes out of the factory, the workers stood in the road, then 3-4 policeman, came to pull the workers out. Workers got injured. They tried to drive faster to get out. Before they said police would just observe, but the employer gave them money to destroy the workers’ action.

Korea (Phil) Usually the Dept. of Justice checks the ID of migrant workers. They are watch officers, they hunt the undocumented workers. Send them to detention cells. There is a conspiracy between company and state agents. Migrant are cheaper and vulnerable. Responsibility is two-fold, need to keep them safe. They are vulnerable because of high unemployment, resistance to migrants increases.

In Korea/Philippines There is a ceiling on the number of full-time officers and paid time for union work. Workers must stay within the permitted leave time they are given for union work. If not, then all activities are regarded as leave without ground. This reverses the gains of unions before. New labour laws are destroying collective power and pushing for individual unions.

China (A-Lung) workers have no representative. The best way to help the workers organize more freely, is to make a

lower cost to the workers, and better strategy, to improve the success of their collective action. In China, strikes cannot last long.

Also, there is censorship. Strikes – in China, it’s the beginning of organizing. It’s one of their experiences, they will do it again if they are successful.


Surendra We discussed that there are more and more problems of informalization. You can organize workers if they are stable. We must establish labour centres. The labour issues should be integrated with the other issues; therefore, we must also address other broader issues.

A-Lung I agree with you to go back to the basics – organizing. There is censorship in the freedom of assembly.

What are the tools or mechanisms that can help workers organize in the face of repression, or counter the repression?Strike preparationSurendra Strikes are still one of the main ways for workers to express

their power. But the core initiator should know clearly what is the law, and stay clear and inform people what is safe to do. There should be a consensus on how to start and how to end, before the struggle starts. More organizing at the shop level – community etc. is needed for that.

Alliances against union-bustingSastro We need to build alliances against union-busting.Vuthy Regarding, changing yellow unions. It’s a kind of organizing.

Yellow unions do change their mind.

Grassroots-level educationThe other important thing: education – at the grassroots level. Workers

don’t know their rights, how to protect their rights. Education is most important. They will join the union and protect their rights, and let them know what an independent union is.Kim YG Posco and Ssangyong investment of Korea/India. Students want

to help workers or those who harm the environment. We should mobilize and include them.Sastro We ask some local unions to join the alliance, not national level

unions only. KSN has 63 unions, most are yellow unions. We need to produce materials for advocacy and propaganda. The government and companies are very, very systematic.

Fighting neoliberal policiesSastro About neoliberalization and globalization because this is

the root problem. They produce these policies like union busting, contractualization, outsourcing, and privatization.

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So we work on how to strengthen the alliances of national, local, and industrial union federations. We need joint advocacy. Solidarity that is more creative and innovative. We occupy courts, factories, Ministry of Labour, etc.

Start by handling workers’ cases and advocating to parties involved – even the policeSastro we organize all those who are facing cases. We aim for more

socialization and education of labour rights, including government officers. We also informally educate the policemen. We go to their police station and teach about labour rights.In Indonesia, we need support, workshops and national conference

on union-busting. Training and education, we can produce it together. Make and share training modules. Do a joint campaign with others.

What do workers do when actually faced with violence?Newspaper/booklets for promoting rights awareness and organizing

Abul organize a newspaper of the own local language, for workers. Daisy A booklet with basic labour standards, as well as critique of local

law, using international standards. Teach people to demand what the international standards say. It should be smaller, so it’s easier to share while staying unseen by employers.

Systematic measures to avoid surveillance and arrest (like QRT)Daisy when you face heavy surveillance, you move around or else face

arrests and worse. Military go into the barangay and harass and look for leaders. That’s why we had to develop QRT.

Worker centres for irregular workers – connected with the community

Kim, Deck-joong: We have created an irregular worker centre. We form a local centre and discuss plans, we been doing this since 2 years ago. Now there is one full-time one person there, and every month, we make a local newspaper, also show social issues, local issues, for all workers who are going to work, encourage people to come in for advice, self –organized by local work. We put more emphasis on the local community organizing since it’s the workers at the place who carry out the plans. They made


an informal workers centre, uniting different groups beyond their own affiliations. They give monthly money and make a paid coordinator, issue a monthly newsletter. Contains regional labour issues, regional and national social issues.

Limitations and strengths of International SolidarityInternational pressure is very important to improve human rights, etc. in Philippines. The same in China.

Different types of solidarity actions have been conducted by CTUHR and Philippine unions:

protests at embassies• statements from governments, NGOs.• seek any statement said by the US (e.g. may review commitments • unless the killings stop.filed a complaint at ILO. The ILO did come, and promised assistance • for education.campaigns on arbitrary detentions.• filed a case with the US Trade Representative. If no, withdraw the GSP • privileges. One on extrajudicial killings and one on DOLE Philippines – using SA8000.using the Commission on Human Rights in the Philippines, it gains • leverage in terms of propaganda.

Further suggestions for international solidarity to overcome trade union repression

Burma and Vietnam International solidarity is needed for them, though maybe out of this meeting.

Bangladesh International solidarity very important. Attacks are made on workers and organizers, and they are harassed by the police. Trade unions are not so efficient, but lot of emails etc. to pressure companies and the government are important. US congressmen were concerned, and demanded a stop to the violence. etc.

Among producer, buyer and retailer, there is a chain. We also need support from all parts in the chain.

Cambodia We don’t have a labour court. Labour Code 988 says we need one to protest against violations against union leaders. If we have a Labour Code, then we can protect union leaders’ security. Instead, employers are using the court system to arrest union leaders!!

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Solidarity is very crucial. Also getting statements. If we don’t get, they will be arrested.

Korea Korean supervisors beat their employees. Hanjin is the biggest single foreign investor in the Philippines. KHIS will follow up. Before, KCTU has intervened on it. Hanjin workers in Korea don’t have international mind, just nationalist. It shows the lack of unity among the workers, a human relations problem, also lack of care about other workers overseas.


The group generally agreed on future steps and suggestions for the campaign against trade union repression.

Future steps (in general)1. There should be a regional campaign to demand freedom of association

and collective bargaining, and rejection of repression of trade union rights. This can include an international conference. (Sastro offers Indonesia as the location for it.)

2. Our meeting should provide a holistic analysis of the common findings regarding trade union repression in Asia. Each participant organization should translate it to the local languages. We should also provide the background documents, and case studies after polishing.

3. Take steps at the national level to build up the regional campaign. This should include:

training module (for training of trainers, as well as for trainers to use • in communities) and Information on laws and procedures•

Suggested steps for the regional campaign to stop TU repression 1. Clarify targets of the campaign (national as well as regional) – whether

the campaign will primarily target workers, the general public or the media.

2. There could be fact-finding missions that will engage international personalities and intellectuals or even retired judges (e.g. there is a

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pro-labour one in India). It can be composed of representatives from around the whole region. (Surendra)

3. Develop a strategy for working with or in awareness of existing regional bodies such as the ASEAN or G20.

4. Establish ‘Regional QRT.’ Mr. Kim (Korea) would like to have an urgent appeal network based on the QRT. For example, at least every three months, protest in solidarity for urgent appeals can be launched from this network.

5. Share different ways of worker organizing: In China workers can’t formally struggle in the form of a union. We • need experiences of those who organized their own unions, national centres. (A-lung)In Cambodia we need more ways to organize and more ways to do • education of grassroots labour. (Vuthy)We can also try to create worker centre for worker education or • cultural space.We must reach each organization in the country working on labour • issues in the country.Learn how to organize dismissed workers. Train them in how to • organize in QRT.

6. Quick information and response method must be in place such as urgent appeal mechanism or group email. We can create a ‘clearinghouse’ for the issue of trade union repression.

7. We need to effectively use all possible media, including videos, powerpoints, whatever can reach workers best.The most important is changing the mind of the workers. They think unions cause factories to close. (Jane Siwa)AMRC can make an educational video about worker rights.

8. Run a meeting of the urban poor. (Abul)10. Link up with the struggles of intellectual workers (including irregular

professors). (Mr. Kim). Indonesia has a union that would be interested to link up struggles.

11. Korea-India: There should be solidarity between Mahindra and Ssangyong. We will try for Korean international solidarity level(KHIS). In Korea it is still hard to give Korean labour people the concept that they can support other labour movements outside, they tend to expect others to help them mainly.


12. Indonesia – Regional: national campaigns, and international conference – in Indonesia.In Indonesia, we have collected more than 50 cases. We have a national campaign with mass gatherings and actions.We should have a day of action. There can also be international conference that we can hold in Indonesia and raise awareness of many unions in Indonesia. We are also going to have a national conference on National Alliance on Labor Rights.

Following this meeting, the hosts will coordinate completion of the relevant reports and initiate finalization of the regional campaign plans, in coordination with the participants and related organizations.

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Photo credits

Cambodian garments workers http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/6261/ask_workers_in_cambodia_

and_bangladesh_what_good_has_corporate_social_/

Mayday rally of Indonesian workershttp://www.life.com/image/74038112

Unrest in Bangladeshi garments industryhttp://www.impacttlimited.com/2008/10/13/views-from-our-asia-pacific-

network-unrest-in-the-bangladeshi-garment-industry/

AITUC demonstration for better social securityhttp://www.google.com.ph/imglanding?q=AITUC&um=1&hl=tl&sa=G&tbs=isch:1&tb

nid=AR5ooDvxbCg_ZM:&imgrefurl=http://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/Coimbatore/article99266.ece&imgurl=http://www.thehindu.com/multimedia/dynamic/00029/VBKF2-_29165f.jpg&ei=nRKHTa6yJsWPcbarzIYD&zoom=1&w=636&h=437&iact=rc&oei=fBKHTdGiKcewcZTRhdUC&page=2&tbnh=131&tbnw=198&start=16&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:6,s:16&biw=1024&bih=551

Rally of Ssangyong workers against company’s lay-off planhttp://www.2space.net/news/article/193546-1240564204/

Arrest of Ssangyong workers in a demonstrationhttp://www.imfmetal.org/index.cfm?c=23845&l=2

Rally in solidarity of Ssangyong workershttp://aawl.org.au/content/rally-solidarity-ssangyong-workers

“Nestle kills workers”http://ilomissiontophils.wordpress.com/2009/09/22/phils-is-again-

asia%E2%80%99s-most-dangerous-country-for-workers/

Filipino workers face to face with Philippine police in a demonstrationhttp://www.demotix.com/news/60148/labor-day-2009-philippines

Strengthening Freedom of Association in Asia 2010

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Transcript of Strengthening Freedom of Association in Asia 2010