ASIAN LABOUR LEADERSHIP CONFERENCE

A Proceeding Report

Organised by

Asia Monitor Resource Centre, International Domestic Workers Federation, and School

of Labor and Industrial Relations, the University of the Philippines

Venue:

School of Labor and Industrial Relations

University of the Philippines (UP SOLAIR)

29 November to 1 December 2014

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Table of Contents

Executive Summary 3

Day 1 4

Introduction 4

Welcome Remarks by Dr. Jonathan Sale 4

Panel Discussion I 5

Presentation 1: “Labor and Industrial Globalization: where is the process leading us to?” by Rene

Ofreneo 5

Presentation 2: “The Rise of Non-Standard Employment in Asia” by Melisa Serrano 7

Questions and comments on Panel Discussion I 8

Panel Discussion II 10

Presentation 3: “Labour Migration” by Dennis Arnold 10

Presentation 4: “Migrant Domestic Workers in Asia” by Elizabeth Tang 11

Presentation 5: “Intra-migration in China” by Samuel Li 12

Presentation 6: “Migrant Workers in India from Nepal and Bangladesh” by Surendra Pratap 12

Questions and Comments on Panel Discussion II 14

Panel Discussion III 16

Presentation 7: “Informal Labour in Asia: Organising Strategies” by Nalini Nayak 16

Presentation 8: “Is the Asian Labour Movement Gender-Blind?” by Christal Chan 17

Questions and Comments on Panel Discussion III 18

Day 2 21

Panel Discussion IV 21

Presentation 9: "The Development of Collective Bargaining in China" by Chris Chan 21

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Presentation 10: "Organising and Campaign Experiences from Domestic Workers" by Fish Ip 22

Presentation 11: "Emerging Labour Resistance in South Asia" by Surendra Pratap 23

Presentation 12: "Labour Protests in Southeast Asia" by Fahmi Panimbang 24

Questions and comments on Panel Discussion IV 25

Group Discussion I: Building Alliances and Networks at Grassroots 26

Report from each Group 27

Day 3 29

Panel Discussion V 29

Presentation 13: "Rethinking the (Asian) Labour Movement" by Dae-Oup Chang 29

Presentation 14: "Democracy, Occupy Movement, and Grassroots Movement in Hong Kong" by

Samuel Li Shing-Hong 31

Presentation 15: "Stories of Dispossession in Plantation and Mining Communities in the Philippines:

Challenges of reclaiming rights and dignity" by Joy Hernandez 32

Questions and Comments on Panel Discussion V 33

Group Discussion II: Vision on Labour Movement in Asia and its Challenges 36

Report from each Group (Question 1: "What is the vision of social transformation shared by labour

movements in Asia?") 36

Report from each Group (Question 2: "What are the challenges to the labour movements in Asia?")

38

Group Discussion III: Solidarity Building 40

Report from each group 40

Comments and recommendations 42

List of Participants 43

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Executive Summary

Over the course of three days, panel members and participants of Asian Labour Leadership

Conference mapped the landscape of Asian labour with a special focus on experiences of

resistance and solidarity building. Through presentations of history, relevant trends, and

important case studies, the participants of the conference identified commonalities and

peculiarities in the experiences of particular countries, toward a better understanding of the all-

encompassing and globalised nature of the challenges that labour movements in the region face.

Wide-ranging issues like minimum wage, anti-labour legislation, and human rights violations,

were taken side by side with specific concerns, like the question of gender in trade unions, the

plight of migrant workers, and collective bargaining in socialist countries such as China and

Vietnam, among others. In the end, with a better and consolidated idea of the nature of

resistance in Asia, there was a consensus among participants to continue with existing

campaigns while seeking out an altogether new paradigm for the labour movement, in terms of

alternatives to what exists today.

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Day 1

Introduction

Elizabeth Tang opened the conference by giving a brief history of its inception. The idea for a

labour conference, she said, began to take form during the World Social Forum on Migration

held in Manila from November 26-30, 2012. It was here when participants from various labour

organizations based in different countries in Asia saw the need to create a space where they

could discuss their concerns, share their experiences, and learn together. Together with plans for

establishing an Asian Labour School, the Asian Labour Leadership Conference stemmed from the

participants’ decision to make more concrete steps in building labour solidarity in the region.

Afterwards, Elizabeth described what to expect throughout the three-day conference. The first

day would discuss the increasing dominance of capital and how it impacts the lives of workers

and labour organizations. On the second day, panel and group sessions would aim to elaborate

and lend insight on the various forms of workers’ resistance in various sectors in Asia. The last

day of the conference should look at and assess the common future of labour organizations

amidst current economic policies in Asia.

Welcome Remarks by Dr. Jonathan Sale

In his message, Dr. Jonathan Sale traced the history of labour organisations in the Philippines,

beginning with the foundation of Union Obrera Democratica by Isabelo de los Reyes in 1902. This

union, he pointed out, was very critical of American labour policy. He then proceeded to discuss

the development of labour policies in the country, pointing out contradictions and major issues

in the process.

One instance is the country’s ratification of the World Trade Organization agreements, which

further deepened inequality between capital and labour. Further exacerbating these conditions

is the Supreme Court’s interpretation that globalization is in accord with the Philippine

Constitution. These events, along with the predominant economic policies in the country, have

been detrimental to the workers, particularly in conflict resolutions. Due to the frailty of

organized labour and considerable decline in collective bargaining agreements, the burden of

labour dispute settlement has fallen on compulsory arbitration, which is mainly facilitated by the

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government.

Meanwhile, membership of so-called “workers’ associations” have increased over time. This is

directly correlated to the increasing number of small enterprises in the informal economy which

employ ambulant, intermittent and itinerant workers. These workers’ associations, however, are

organized only for the purpose of mutual gain and protection, and not for collective bargaining.

Another cause for concern is the Philippine Labor Code, which is supposed to protect the rights

of the workers and give them remedies that are available under law. While the Labor Code and

its implementing rules mention the word “work” and its derivatives, it does not provide a

statutory definition of work. Under Article 13 of the Code, “worker” is defined as any member of

the labor force, whether employed or unemployed. In Article 97, employ “includes to suffer or

permit work”. Therefore, most if not all, of the provisions in the labor code are based on the

existence of an employer-employee relationship, where the rights of workers are not accessible.

Seen to remedy these problems is the proposed Magna Carta of Workers in the Informal

Economy that is currently in Congress. But Dr. Sale warns that whether such a law would pass –

given the composition of lawmakers in the 15th Congress – is entirely another issue.

Panel Discussion I

Presentation 1: “Labor and Industrial Globalization: where is the process

leading us to?” by Rene Ofreneo

Rene Ofreneo’s presentation discussed the history and characteristics of the global production

network (GPN). He pointed out that current practices in international trade and labour market

have created a new glossary of terms, which could be used to describe the nature of GPN.

“Flying geese” – the term, which gained popularity in the 1960s and 1970s, pertains to Japan’s

attempt to transfer its multi-layered industrial structure to East Asia. The model envisioned a

regional hierarchy – with Japan at the forefront – in terms of technological development where

the production of goods would continuously move from advanced countries to less advanced

countries. The key to the process was international subcontracting, which meant transferring

less technological, more labour intensive activities to other Asian countries. One company which

employed this strategy was Toyota, which outsourced the production of various parts of their

vehicles in Southeast Asia. However, Japan was not able to sustain this method due to the non-

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linear development of economies of Asian countries.

NIDL vs. OIDL – The change from OIDL (old international division of labour) to NIDL (new

international division of labour) signalled the “global industrial shift”, which relocated production

processes from developed countries to developing countries in Asia. This condition is in stark

contrast to the OIDL, where developing countries were only seen as producers of cheap raw

materials and importers of expensive finished products. Multinational Corporations (MNCs) are

seen as the primary facilitators of the NIDL.

GCC – Eventually, debates between NIDL and OIDL have been replaced by discussions on global

commodity chains (GCCs). GCC pertains to the design, production, and marketing of goods by

MNCs across the globe. In the 1990s, GCC quickly became the norm with the advent of the

information and communications technology (ICT) revolution, transport modernization, and

ascendancy of neo-liberal ideology from the formation of the World Trade Organization. For

these reasons, “globalization” eventually replaced “internationalization” as the buzz word in

Asia.

Buyer-driven GCC and Producer-driven GCC – Buyer-driven GCCs are dictated by MNCs that have

no factories but have brands, huge stores, retailers, and partner traders, mainly in Asian, new

industrialized countries (NICs). Products that are produced in this model are mostly light

consumer goods, especially garments, footwear, toys, furniture, etc. On the other hand,

producer-driven GCC are dictated by MNCs which control research and development and design

to production and marketing through a chain of subsidiaries, joint ventures, and outsourcing

partner firms. Here, technology and capital intensive industries produce goods like cars,

computers, etc.

GPN, GVC, GSC – At the turn of the millennium, a new term, global production network (GPN),

was coined. Under this mode, MNCs aim to maximize the global value chain (GVC) through a

rigorous assessment of the global supply chain (GSC) and a better supply chain management

(SCM). Playing an increasingly important role in this framework is the logistics industry to

facilitate seamless operations from the procurement of raw materials to the distribution of

finished products in stores. Mapping of GPNs have also been used by MNCs to determine the

global division of labour based on technology. For instance, assembly parts of cars and airplanes

are sourced in different countries, essentially making them “made in the world”.

From year 2000 onwards, a “tradability revolution” in the services industry took place. As the

WTO embraced the general agreement on trade in services (GATS), mode 1 (consumption

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abroad), mode 2 (cross-border), mode 3 (commercial presence), and mode 4 (movement of

personnel of service provider) became part of trade vocabulary.

Subsequently, the WTO would coin the phrase “trade in tasks”, which indicated trade processes

becoming highly complex. This globalization of production and services has caused the rise of

new economic models (NEMs) and the spread of precarity, reaffirming MNCs domination of

global, regional, and national economies. Meanwhile, indigenous production and marketing

outside the framework of globalization hardly progress.

Despite today’s global financial crisis, neo-liberal policy regimes are still in place in many

countries and remain unchanged. Two big advances of the neo-liberal framework are: first, the

privatisation of social services and infrastructure development via public-private partnerships

(PPP); and second, the liberalisation of land and markets.

To conclude, Ofreneo pointed out the following questions to the participants: can MNCs be

tamed? Can globalization be re-directed to a race to the top? How different will be this from the

race to the bottom? How do we humanize globalization?

Presentation 2: “The Rise of Non-Standard Employment in Asia” by Melisa

Serrano

In her presentation, Melisa Serrano initially pointed out the difficulty in defining non-standard

employment (NSE) in Asia due to the variety of terms, forms, and concepts that each country

used. She explained that even within ASEAN and east-Asian nations, there are differences on the

definitions and usage of types of NSE such as “casual work”, “contract of service”,

“contract/piece paid”, “project-based”, “seasonal work”, “contract work”, etc.

However, Serrano also pointed out the commonalities between these types of NSE. Some of

these are: fixed or short duration of employment contract; lower and unstable incomes; limited

or absence of social security benefits; work at multiple worksites; dominance of elementary

occupations; dangerous and risky jobs without insurance; over-representation of women and

young workers, but increasingly among older workers in East Asia (except Taiwan); workers are

largely unorganised, non-unionised; dominance of service jobs; use of fixed term contracts

through outsourcing in almost all sectors and across a variety of occupations; and outsourcing is

increasingly done within the enterprise.

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Throughout the ASEAN and East Asia, the recorded incidence of NSE has been high and

increasing, due mainly to employers’ views on variability of demand and the need to reduce

workforce. In Indonesia, 65% of employment could be attributed to NSE; in Malaysa, 25% and in

the Philippines, 33%. In Korea, the rise of in-house subcontracting has greatly contributed to an

increase in NSE.

Yet, studies show the lack of positive impact that NSE has to a country’s GDP and economic

growth. In the Philippines, for instance, the increase in NSE does translate to a decrease in its

unemployment rate. In Korea, in-house subcontracting could not be attributed to the higher

wages of its regular workers. In a survey, more respondents (40%) also believed that outsourcing

actually leads to higher costs than lesser costs (32%) in the production.

NSE also poses several issues to labour unions and organisations. In Malaysia and the Philippines,

there has been a declining trend of labour union organisations. Singapore and Vietnam,

however, have increasing trends of unionisation. The actual representation of NSE workers in

labour unions is another issue, as most labour organizations are usually structured to address

concerns of regular workers and employees. Serrano reiterates that NSE is a multi-faceted issue

that requires a multi-dimensional approach.

Questions and comments on Panel Discussion I

Question 1: Regarding globalisation and NSE, what can trade unions and activists do to counter

it? What are the other possible strategies available to these organisations?

Answer 1 (Melissa Serrano): It depends on how unions understand NSE and on their willingness

to innovate. They are part of the trade union structure, but they are not represented as a

specific structure in the trade union organisation. Innovation exists for contractual workers;

there are very specific conditions for very specific structure, but these are still within the overall

structure of the trade union. Trade unions and organisations are governed by two existing logic:

the logic of accommodation and the logic of transformation. There should be equal balance

between the two.

Answer 2 (Rene Ofreneo): In trade unions and organisations, they have not gone beyond slogans.

It is easy to do slogans, but the challenge is, how do you operationalise it? There are different

steps and actions for different countries and conditions. We really need to analyse these things

carefully.

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Comment 1: Twenty five years ago, workers of the company Bosch in Bangalore, India did not

allow their products to be labelled as “made in Germany”. Strategies like these could be effective

in reaching agreements with MNCs.

Comment 2: In a study of workers of the automobile industry in New Delhi, they found out that

the number of workers actually did not change for the last 5 years. They used a downsized

workforce (permanent, contractual workers), but compel them to do overtime work (around 3

hours to 8 hours of overtime). Contractual workers are also having difficulty getting enrolled in

trade unions because the government does not recognize them as normal workers

Comment 3: In Indonesia, our unions organise all types of workers. We don’t differentiate

between outsourced, contractual, irregular, regular, etc. We organise as many as possible

regardless of their status and category.

Some companies put out the work to the entire family (home-based work system), where most

of the family members are employed. However, they are not aware that they are being

exploited. Instead, they are told that it is good because they can also take care of their children

while working, but they are paid very little and exploited. For example, they pay for the

electricity costs related to their work. It is not easy to organise, but we try to fight.

Comment 4: In Cambodia, the government is exerting pressure for workers not to join labour

unions. Another issue is that most union organizers don’t have training in the universities, so

they don’t know the existing laws which protect worker’s rights.

Question 2 (to Rene Ofreneo): I want to know your observation regarding the response of labour

unions in countries who are involved in free trade agreements and who are members of the

WTO. How do they respond to these trends that you have elaborated?

Answer 3 (Rene Ofreneo): Ever since, WTO kept on reiterating the need to liberalise to its

members. One of the most contentious areas is agriculture. It is hypocritical for US and Europe

to talk of liberalisation when they protect their own farmers (mainly through the US Farm Bill of

America and Common Land Act of Europe). In other words, the MNCs want a free market, but

not for the patents and new technologies, so that they can continue to impose monopoly prices.

Due to the failure of talks within the WTO, bilateral and regional free trade talks (China with

Australia, Korea with individual ASEAN countries, etc.) have appeared. Most of these talks

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reaffirmed not only the need to liberalise economies, but to respect and preserve the MNCs’

ownership of intellectual property rights. The World Bank and Asian Development Bank often

talk about the increasing inequality and gap in wealth, but they have no clear solution for it.

Their rhetorics do not match.

The concept of social contract was formed during post-war period, but it has disintegrated since.

The question is, do we revive the social contract? What should be its form in lieu of

globalisation? In 2010, a framework was formed by the UN which discussed the duties of

corporations to respect human and labour rights. But how do you operationalize these?

Panel Discussion II

Presentation 3: “Labour Migration” by Dennis Arnold

Dennis Arnold’s presentation began by showing in broad strokes the current situation of global

migration: 215 million people live outside their countries of birth, an increase from 84.5 million

in 1975, and where 105 million are international migrant labourers; 43% of Asian migrants move

within the region; and that globally, 700 million people migrate within their countries. Arnold

cautions that these figures are just estimates, as reliable data on irregular migrants is lacking.

Migration, however, is nothing new. In the century following 1820, about 60 million Europeans

left for the “New World”. From 1846-1940, about 48-52 million people migrated from India and

Southern China to different parts of Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean Rim, and South Pacific. In

the same period, around 46-51 million also migrated from Northeast Asia and Russia to

Manchuria, Siberia, Central Asia, and Japan.

In the 1960s, neoclassical economists formulated a series of hypotheses concerning the volume

of migration and its streams and counter-streams, particularly the “push” factors at the place of

origin which stimulated “moves”, and the “pull” factors which attracted “movers”. But this

approach eventually became criticised for positioning migrant workers as being determined and

overwhelmed by economic structural forces and without having any agency.

Another view is the dual labour market theory, which claims that modern industrial labour

markets are divided into two sectors: the primary sector and secondary sector, which is

composed mostly of migrants and women. The reality, however, is that migrants are neither at

the fringes of labour markets nor an anomaly. In fact, migrants are at the centre of the

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contemporary labour process, replacing the male blue collar worker as the paradigmatic worker.

Theories of national development seldom paid much attention to international migration. It was

only recently that the labour migration debate began to take into account the complexity of the

development-migration interaction. The size of migrant worker communities and the volume of

remittances that they produced prompted theoretical models that emphasised financial flows.

The World Bank claims that remittances generally: reduce the level and severity of poverty,

translate to better access to social services, formal financial sector services, and to information

and communication technologies, as well as bring about higher human capital accumulation.

Many oppose these views, believing that the World Bank is covering up for the failures of its neo-

liberalisation projects, and precisely because migrants have become part of the solution to these

failures.

At present, two contrasting beliefs in migration studies exist – one that links it heavily on the

economic aspect of migration which emphasise exploitation and precarisation; and the other,

more positive view that celebrates migrants’ hybridity, the so-called “cosmopolitanism from

below”, and the migrants’ contribution to economic growth via remittances.

Presentation 4: “Migrant Domestic Workers in Asia” by Elizabeth Tang

Most migrant workers going out of their country end up as domestic workers. In fact, almost half

of the 53 million migrant workers are domestic workers.

One of the most common experiences of migrant workers is debt bondage. Most of these

migrant domestic workers go through private recruitment agencies where they are often

exploited by being forced to pay around four to seven months’ worth of salary for recruitment

fees. In many cases, they are also forced to sign contracts without having read the contracts.

Migrant domestic workers differ from other migrant workers in the sense that, despite their big

numbers, they are actually invisible. Once they arrive in their countries of destination, they

immediately go to individual households because of the live-in arrangements with their

employers. This gives them very little or almost no possibility of going out. Employers and

agencies that hold their passports compound this problem even further. For these conditions,

migrant domestic workers are among the most vulnerable.

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From an organising standpoint, migrant domestic workers also present various challenges. In

some countries, organising migrant domestic workers is very difficult because the governments

do not allow it (an example is Malaysia). Migrant domestic workers also include “local” domestic

workers who only move within their country. In India, for instance, most migrant domestic

workers belong to the rural-to-urban migration. At present, the Federation of Domestic Workers

in Hong Kong is the only organisation in the world that organises domestic workers (either local

or migrant) of multiple nationalities. Through this organisation, migrant domestic workers are

increasingly engaging with the issues that confront them.

Presentation 5: “Intra-migration in China” by Samuel Li

As of 2013, there are about 269 million migrant workers in China. This migration of workers is

primarily driven by China’s rapid economic growth and urbanisation, as well as the following

factors: the shortage of labour in urban areas, the failure of developmental policies in the rural

regions, and the perceived promise of progress and prosperity that urban areas have.

A major issue from this intra-migration of labour is the discrimination against migrant workers

from rural areas. In most cases, they are paid less compared to their colleagues who come from

the cities. They are also forced to do long overtime work, and they have no adequate social

protection from work-related injuries and illnesses.

On average, migrant workers stay in the same city for about 10-20 years. Over time, this results

to a “localisation” of migrant workers into the urban areas. An important phenomenon to take

note is how this intra-migration of labour has precipitated a new generation of workers. Of the

269 million migrant workers, 125 million were born after 1980. Mainly working in the

manufacturing industry, these younger workers usually have higher educational attainment, use

social media more often, and are not overtly concerned about the precocity of their jobs, leading

to higher attrition rates in workplaces.

Presentation 6: “Migrant Workers in India from Nepal and Bangladesh” by

Surendra Pratap

Migrant workers from Bangladesh and Nepal form the major section of foreign migrants in India.

There is no reliable data on migrant workers from Bangladesh and there are rare if any studies

on them. They are also not organized and therefore not socially and politically visible. Nepalese

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citizens immigrating to India constitute nearly 68 percent of total Nepalese emigrants. 23

percent of all Nepali households receive remittances, of which 33 per cent is only from India.

More than 1 million Nepalese are working in India. Among the male Nepali migrant workers in

India, 60 percent work in restaurant/bars; 20 percent as security guards/watch¬men, 10 percent

in factories and the rest are engaged in various casual jobs. Among women Nepalese migrants,

50 percent work as domestic workers, 10 percent as factory workers, 25 percent as housewives

and a significant percentage presumably as sex workers. There may be about 200,000 Nepali

women in Indian brothels.

All migrant workers including Nepalese and Bangladeshi migrants face following problems:

a) Brokers often exploit women, promising a job in some country and trafficking them to

brothels in India

b) While crossing the borders all migrant workers face harassment, particularly while going

back home

c) They also face discrimination in terms that landowners asking comparatively higher rents

from foreign migrants, as it also happens in case of migrants from south and north east

India

d) Sexual harassment. The problem is aggravated due to their isolation in society, and

because no one comes to help them. Furthermoer, they face discrimination in police

stations and administrative offices.

Most serious problems relate to the problems in getting the ID card in India. Address proof and

ID proof are the basic requirements for getting Ration card, Adhar card and other welfare cards.

The landlords are never willing to give in writing that they live in their premises, so they are

never able to provide an address proof. Less than 10 percent of Nepalese migrants have any

such ID cards and they are able to get benefit of such welfare schemes. For other migrants the

problem is even more serious. Therefore, they are unable to get subsidized items from public

distribution system (PDS) shops and also denied cooking gas connection, so compelled to

purchase cooking gas from black market at four times higher rate. In many cases, the employers

do not put their names in their enrolment registers so they do not have the proof of

employment. Following the policy of KYC (Know your Customer), bank does not open any bank

account for migrant workers for lack of address proof and ID proof. Because they do not have

bank account, they are unable to claim their pension and insuratance-related benefits. So the

workers willingly give their consent to employers for no PF deductions. Interestingly, it is in these

situations, the trade unions focusing only on shop-floor issues, become irrelevant for these

workers.

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Questions and Comments on Panel Discussion II

Comment 1: I have seen so many migrant domestic workers (Filipinos, Bangladeshi, Indian) in

gulf countries and their experiences are really horrifying. For instance, there was this lady sitting

next to me on a plane, she was crying. She told me she was going back to her home country. She

said that her passport was taken by her employer on the first day of her work. She worked for

that employer for six months, but only three months’ worth of her salary was paid. On the sixth

month, her employer’s entire family accompanied her to the airport, gave her the boarding pass,

without paying a single cent owed to her.

In construction sites, 10-15 migrant workers are crammed inside a very small room. Living

conditions in the site itself are also very poor.

My point is, what can we do to address these cases of domestic workers? How can we help

them? Is there social protection available for them?

Comment 2: In Malaysia, one problem that Cambodian migrant domestic workers encounter is

the discrimination that they get from the local population. Malaysians perceive the Cambodians

to be stealing their jobs and money. Another is hard labour and physical abuse. Some even die

from it. So how do we address these problems? My idea is that we start within our own home.

We need to strengthen laws and the recognition of rights of workers in Cambodia itself.

Question 1 (Nalini): Obviously there is a gradual withdrawal of the state and its institutions in

addressing the issues of migrant workers. My question is, what is the role of trade unions in

highlighting the state’s role of protecting these sectors?

Comment 3: In Bangladesh, domestic workers are excluded from the national labour act. There

have been initiatives of organising domestic workers, but this is only limited to local domestic

workers.

Comment 4: Qatar, in particular is a very oppressive country for migrant domestic workers.

Answer 1 (Elizabeth Tang): Yes, Qatar might be the worst, but governments of Asian countries

are not doing much better. One agenda in government meeting is collective contract. We

oppose the model contract because it does not recognize the legal rights of domestic workers.

This is important because this gives legal basis. We also need to openly tell stories of exploitation

of migrant domestic workers. Finally, I want to remind people that, aside from being critical of

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foreign governments where these abuses are perpetuated, we need to compel our own

governments to protect their own people in countries where they migrate and work to.

Answer 2 (Dennis Arnold): On the issue of social protection and reproduction, I think this is one

of the key issues we have to address. Social protection is indeed being withdrawn and reduced

(as seen from austerity measures in Europe and other countries, gradual and dramatic reduction

in social protections and weakening of labour rights and protection). It’s not the state

withdrawing or becoming less prominent, but there is a shift in their priorities.

Another issue of contention is how the World Bank is championing social protection (deepening

commodification of social protection, return of investment). There are also issues within existing

labour unions. For instance, there is a case in the 1990s and early to mid-2000s where unions in

Thailand were united in calls to expel Burmese migrants out of the country. While many Thai

unions have changed their position, it has elicited various responses from Burmese trade unions,

which came to rely on themselves rather than solely local unions. The idea is for migrant workers

organisations to draw on a variety of support from, including but not limited to, trade unions at

the the national and international level.

Comment 5: Land grabbing has been very rampant in Indonesia, plantations have become

industrial complexes, so people are displaced as migrant workers in other countries.

Comment 6: One problem for migrant workers is that they receive no briefing or training before

they are sent to work abroad. This affects their integration into workers’ union in their country of

destination. Preparation should not only be initiated by the government, but by the labour

organizations as well. The issues of migrant workers are more than just issues of slavery and

human trafficking. They are also issues of changing the economic paradigm. Do we have an

alternative to globalisation?

Comment 7: My first employer in Bahrain did not pay me the right wages and never on time. I

went back to the agency, which gave me a new employer. However, they didn’t give me a new

contract to sign. My new employer was still abusive. He even attempted to rape me, so I ran

away. Instead of going back to the agency, I went to the Philippine embassy, but they handed me

to the police station. The police held me in detention for 21 days. My question is, if I go to

another country to work and the same thing happens, will the government of that country help

me? In gulf countries, they often side with the employer, because he is a citizen.

Comment 8: Despite numerous cases of abuses and exploitation by employers, the government

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is not compelled to act and protect these migrant workers. Export-labor policy of the Philippine

government is only after the steady flow of remittances, which contributes to the country’s GDP.

This is even institutionalized, as short courses on household work, for instance. I think the issues

of Filipino migrant workers should be resolved and addressed here in the country, not in the

countries where they go. Migration problems can only be addressed if industrialisation is

achieved.

Answer 3 (Dennis Arnold): Clearly, it is a government issue, but collective initiatives could also be

a better solution.

Answer 4 (Elizabeth Tang): Most MOUs between governments are bilateral. Even if it looks good,

the content is not disclosed. The migrant workers do not know the contents of these MOUs. We

need more multilateral agreements than bilateral ones.

How to get help in gulf countries: NGOs are making more effort to reach migrant workers. The

question is, how do we determine the workers who need access to these types of services and

assistance? For labour organisations, how do we ensure that these cases of exploitation and

abuse do not happen again?

Panel Discussion III

Presentation 7: “Informal Labour in Asia: Organising Strategies” by Nalini

Nayak

In South Asia, 94% of labour belongs to the informal sector. Of this number, 70% work in

agriculture and services sector, contributing to 60% of the GDP.

There are two primary effects of globalisation in South Asia: capital chasing cheap labour and

capital grabbing natural resources (land, water, minerals, ocean resources, forest products) –

both of which are abundant in South Asia. However, the labour movement is not looking at these

issues as it is mainly concerned with issues of employment. The labour movement should also

look at the movement of capital in a “global village”, as this can be considered as one of the

primary impetus for migration.

Presently, these forces have resulted to massive displacement of people, both in the rural areas

and urban areas. People are now moving into all kinds of self-employment, converting

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themselves into cheap wage workers (street vendors, rag pickers, domestic workers, etc.) It has

also resulted to massive deterioration of the livelihoods of the informal sector, as well as massive

pollution of the environment. Other issues have also cropped up such as the feminisation of

labour, production of unhealthy food, creating wars to sustain the armament industry, etc.,

essentially focusing on the “production of death” and not on securing life.

Resistance to these forces should begin with the people asserting their rights to natural

resources, land tenure, ownership to traditional knowledge (as opposed to the appropriation of

the capitalist system of traditional knowledge), food sovereignty, and work. Organisation

strategies should also take into account the various dichotomies in labour that exist: contract

workers vs. permanent workers, local workers vs. migrant workers, and the small producers vs.

the big producers.

At SEWA, the work is primarily focused on making the following more visible: chains of

subcontracting and exploitation; workers who continue to be invisible because of the nature of

their work; and the policies that marginalise workers in the informal sector. Particular emphasis

is also given in pushing for the recognition of the different types of informal work, advocating for

legislation that promotes social protection, collectivisation of the informal labourers for strength

and survival, and alliance building.

Presentation 8: “Is the Asian Labour Movement Gender-Blind?” by Christal

Chan

The feminisation of the Asian labour force can be seen in various ways. Women workers are

segregated into particular types of occupations that have inferior working conditions compared

to jobs held by men. These roles in the workforce are basically extensions of their society’s

gender roles. While there is an increasing participation of women in the economy, this is

primarily based on exploitation and inequality. Thus, wage gaps and working conditions could

worsen as more women enter the workforce.

As marginalised workers, women labourers are in a precarious situation even within labour

organisations. Often, they are excluded from decision-making, making it difficult for them to

organise their concerns and turn it into a bargaining force. Their work is also discriminated and

undervalued. There is also very little recognition of the important role that women workers are

playing (or can play) in the labour movement. The composition and dynamics of the labour force

has changed, but the labour movement is operating as if the majority of the workers are male

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and in secure factory jobs.

Several factors are considered as barriers to women workers’ participation in labour

organisations: (1) individual/person – perceived lack of confidence, skills, etc.; (2) home/family –

not much time for organisational work due to their need to rush home and take care of their

families; (3) society – perception of other people that women’s places are inside a home; (4)

trade union – if organisations don’t take women’s issues into account, why would women

labourers join?

For labour organisations where majority of the members are women, questions are also in place:

are women’s interests prioritised? Are gender-sensitive policies in place? Do they participate in

decision-making processes? Are women given the same opportunity to be elected as leaders?

In general, the Asian labour movement might have to reflect, asses, and address the following

questions: Is the Asian labour movement gender-blind? What’s the best way to be more

inclusive of women and life-sustaining issues? Should women workers form their own separate

unions, or should they try to make themselves heard using the existing structures? Are women

workers’ issues different from workers’ issues? Do promoting women workers’ issues create

disunity in the labour movement?

Questions and Comments on Panel Discussion III

Comment 1: On the matter of recognising and organising the informal sectors of labour, we must

accept that these are the weaknesses of the labour movement. We have to start looking at the

specific dimensions of these sectors, particularly in each state in India.

Comment 2: In Vietnam, we have women workers’ committees, but there is not enough effort

given in recognising women-specific concerns like raising children at the workplace, putting up

breastfeeding places, etc. This is a challenge for trade unions. We shouldn’t establish separate

women workers’ unions as this step would add additional burden to limited resources. Rather,

trade unions should be gender-balanced.

Comment 3: The idea not to create separate women’s unions is correct, for doing so would

create fragmentation. What our organisation does is hold gender-sensitivity training for men.

Comment 4: In Korea, we formed trade unions exclusive for women in 1999 because we saw it

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difficult to have our voices heard in mainstream trade unions. We got a lot of flak from

mainstream trade unions as they saw it as divisive of the labour movement. But now there is

more acceptance as they have seen the benefits of these types of organisations, for example, the

lobbying of a higher minimum wage for women’s workers, which has gone well. So I don’t think

women trade unions only create conflicts. Sometimes they can infuse new or fresh agenda into

the labour movement.

Comment 5: We need labour unions not only to focus on labour rights, but also on human

(people) rights. The question is, how can labour unions also address pressing issues that are

beyond labour issues? We can improve the organisation of the informal sectors, and if we do

this, we can also address women’s issues.

Comment 6: In Malaysia, women workers, who are mainly in electronic industries, are consulted

when we write the constitution of labour unions. We put specific provisions to make sure that

women and their concerns are expressed and represented.

Comment 7: In Cambodia, there is an abundance of stories of exploitation of women workers. In

my organization, we try to work with ILO to address these problems, especially the migrant

women workers. I would like to know how to improve in addressing women’s issues in labour

unions?

Comment 8: Women plantation workers are also exploited in palm plantations in Indonesia. They

are given oil instead of cash as payment. Women are also undercompensated compared to men.

Question 1 (Hueonmi): How can we make labour unions more gender sensitive?

Answer (Nalini): The issue I am raising is actually life system and how this can be integrated into

labour movements. It is interesting to take note of how women were responsible for expressing

the concerns of the fish workers movement in India. Food fish exported was actually food that

was being traded by women, and consumed locally. But mainstream labour unions did not

recognize this, which compelled women workers to organize themselves. A valid question would

be, within the union itself, whose issues are being raised?

Question (Apo Leong): What will happen then if different sectors pull out from existing labour

unions because they think their problems are not addressed? Can’t we be more united and work

within the system to transform these labour unions?

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Answer (Christal Chan): The current consensus is not for women to break away from existing

labour unions. However, recognising women’s issues in labour organisations is only possible if

the leadership of labour unions is receptive enough. So the question still remains, how do we

apply this from the top, down to the lowest level of the organisational structure?

Answer (Nalini): Life issues are more central; it is only women’s groups that have been raising

these issues more often and have been more vocal about it. Violence is there, but we only allow

it to grow, we are not doing anything about it. There are larger issues that labour movements

have to confront, and unless we address them, there will be no life for our future generations. I

am not for women putting up their own unions.

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Day 2

After laying out the contemporary picture of the labour situation in Asia on the first day, the

second day focused on emerging ways in which workers have resisted the mostly oppressive

character of the current labour picture. Through case studies, the presentations examined

different forms of organising witnessed in country-, sector-, and enterprise-levels, including

building alliances across sectors and with broader social movements.

Panel Discussion IV

Presentation 9: "The Development of Collective Bargaining in China" by Chris

Chan

The presentation tried to answer the question of how collective bargaining can exist in a country

with no independent unions. He offered a way to see the evolution of collective bargaining

mechanisms since the country opened its market. He identified the stages as (1) Collective

consultation by formality (early 1990s to 2000s), (2) Collective bargaining by riot (2004 to 2008),

(3) Party state-led collective bargaining (developed after 2010 although the form has long

existed), and (4) Workers-led collective bargaining (in the future).

The first type is collective consultation by formality. The need to differentiate between the

concepts of "collective consultation" and the more traditional "collective bargaining" is unique in

socialist countries, he said. The assumption is that there is no need for bargaining of any sort

because the state will always advocate for the advancement of workers' interests. The legal

framework has existed as early as 1992 with the Trade Union Law, followed by the Labour Law in

1994 and the Labour Contract Law in 2008. To date, more than 80 percent of enterprises with

1,000 workers or more have signed a collective contract. However, it's been noted that workers

play no active role in this set-up, which still employs a top-down approach. In TNCs, freedom of

association is merely a CSR requirement.

Strikes from 2004 to 2007 marked an increase in collective bargaining by riot. Demands included

the implementation of the minimum wage, overtime pay, and social insurance. Actions were

mostly rights-based although there were also cases of interest-based strikes. Forms of struggle

include machine breaking, stoppage, and roadblocks.

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Party state-led collective bargaining developed after 2010 although the set-up has been known

before. A noteworthy case, the 17-day Honda strike in May 2010 carried demands for reasonable

wages, trade union reform or reconstruction, promotion opportunities and job security. A rising

interest-based character was observed in such set-up. Forms of struggle included rallies inside

the factory estate, public speeches by leaders, and search for external support.

Like collective consultation by formality, among the challenges of this set-up are largely about

the issue of union independence. Enterprise or sectoral trade union represents workers to

negotiate with management. Union committee members are often elected under the monitor of

higher level trade unions. Examples include the Wuhan catering industry and Wenling.

Workers-led collective bargaining is said to be the future of such mechanisms in China. There are

cases in which the trade union and the party share an office in the workplace, while full-time

trade union officers used to be department heads in the enterprise.

Presentation 10: "Organising and Campaign Experiences from Domestic

Workers" by Fish Ip

The presentation painted a dire picture for domestic workers, including children and migrants,

and the kind of resistance and alliance-building that their precarious situation allows.

Domestic workers, she stressed, are usually not included in existing trade union structure. They

are mostly organised in the neighbourhood and community-level, similar to other informal

workers. These groups provide mutual help and support in a number of issues, for examples (1)

shelter and emergency help, (2) other employment, (3) domestic violence, (4) child care, (5)

emotional support, (6) credit cooperative, and (7) women knowledge sharing. Services available

to members can often be categorised under (1) skills training, (2) job placement, and (3) informal

education.

Resistance efforts are concentrated in building visibility, identity, voice, and representation.

There were also cases of alliance-building with other sectors, such as garments factory workers

in a case in Bangladesh, or migrants, as in migrant’s centres in Hong Kong. As the counterparts of

management in the case of domestic workers are individual employers, initiatives have included

launching immediate action in front of the employer's house. There are also actions that fight

discriminatory labour laws and state policy that don't classify domestic workers as workers. Due

to their precarious place, there is also a resistance within the labour movement.

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Presentation 11: "Emerging Labour Resistance in South Asia" by Surendra

Pratap

While it is impossible to cover all modes of resistance in South Asia, there are certain trends that

characterize emergent labour resistance movements in the region.

The rate of unionisation and organising in South Asia depends on (1) the proportion of formal

workers in sectors and alliances between formal and informal workers; (2) industry-wide

alliances and industry-wide bargaining, as in the textile and tea industries in India and Pakistan;

(3) available space for collective bargaining in the nature of the occupation; (4) integration of

small economies; (5) sub-sector-based institutions and regulatory conditions; (6) organising

initiatives and alliances; and (7) mass organisations movements.

Major visible resistance movements include (1) industrial labour movements in formal sector, as

in freedom of association and collective bargaining; (2) labour movements in industrial-informal

sectors, as in the implementation of minimum wages and other labour standards; and (3)

workers movements against dispossession, as in agriculture and forest workers.

The Maruti-Suzuki Workers Strike of 2005 was a noteworthy case. It took place largely

independent of central trade unions, the mode of radicalisation mainly through factory

occupation. It also exemplified alliance-building, between formal and informal workers at the

regional level as well as between regular workers and families in the movement. There were also

support groups from various organisations and trade unions. Their demands included an end to

the contract labour system. As a result, 147 workers were jailed, with an additional 2,300, 546 of

them regular, terminated. Nonetheless, clear impacts of the action included wage revision and

the institution of a regularisation policy for informal workers.

Another case study presented was the garments industry in Bangladesh. Despite being the

country's most important sector in manufacturing in terms of employment and export, workers

suffered from low wages, fire accidents, and long hours of work. Industry-wide mass actions

mainly demanded for the implementation of a minimum wage.

The Pakistan textile industry was a similar case. The small number of workers, all casual, was paid

per unit. All workers were organised by LQM. The 2008 strike lasted for four days and

participated in by 50,000 workers. The power loom owners opened fire at the ranks of

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protesters, injuring nine all in all. The Faisalabad strike of 2010, meanwhile, coincided with

unrest after subsidies on gas and electricity were withdrawn. There were large-scale repression,

including long sentences for six leaders of the movement.

Mass movements of tribal workers also constituted an emerging form of resistance. Their issues

included land rights and the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act. Tribal fairs, and other

socio-cultural-political actions, intended to raise political consciousness and visibility. In one

case, the issue of sexual harassment of migrating construction workers led to a movement

against contractors and advocating a system to protect migrant workers. Solidarity among

various organisations was formed to oppose land-grabbing, including five groups in Odisha.

Presentation 12: "Labour Protests in Southeast Asia" by Fahmi Panimbang

The Global Rights Index identifies the region as among the world's worst to work in. In the lowest

rung--no guarantee of rights--are Cambodia, Malaysia, Laos, and the Philippines, while there are

systemic violations in Indonesia, Thailand, and Myanmar. Corresponding modes of resistance

have differed, from hunger strikes in Cambodia workers going amok in Malaysia and factory raids

in Indonesia.

After street protests and factory raids, the hunger strike of Walmart and H&M workers in

Cambodia in 2013 represented a new trend in labour resistance in how the workers targeted

brands instead of government. This may signify the increasing power of TNCs over states,

evident in the ballooning profits corporations, pegged at $160 trillion in 2010 (more than a

quarter of world’s GDP!).

In 2014, 800 migrant Nepalese factory workers "went amok" and set fire to the manufacturing

plant where they work after stoning their employers' office and burning down a car. There were

also factory raids in Indonesia, particularly in the densely populated Bekasi Industrial Zones.

Actions were mostly spontaneous and involved hundreds of thousands of workers in one

industrial zone. As the zone is heavily interconnected, blocking one road could disrupt the

operations of the entire area. There were more than 100 factory raids in a two-year period

(2012-2013), mostly in protest against illegal practice of contractual-work status and

implementation of pertinent laws. As a result, more than 60,000 workers were regularised. Even

so, there was backlash from employers, including repression, issuance of protective certificates

by the government, and soft terrorism.

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Questions and comments on Panel Discussion IV

Question: What do labour laws mean when theory is vastly different from reality?

Answer: (Chris Chan) Things are changing. Some NGOs were formed in Guangdong. Their role in

the resistance has become more significant since 2010. There are lawyers, students, and others

who have begun to engage social issues, such as workers' rights, and protesting. In the Honda

case, many scholars wrote to the government and the trade union. Forms of external support

are now more common. People are now more confident in supporting workers' struggle even as

challenges remain, like cases of activists are being arrested. The political spaces for NGO have

become much constrained after the new leadership in 2012 but at the same time they are more

confident.

Question: (from several people) Why use "riot" in describing a stage in collective bargaining in

China? Doesn't the term connote chaos and may undermine the action? Isn't "strike" better?

Also, while there are a lot of commonalities between China and Vietnam's set-up, there is no

external support in the case of Vietnam. Strikes appear to be perfunctory in nature, as it is

normal for enterprises to just wait for strikes to raise the minimum wage. There are regular

dialogues every three months in the workplace instead of state-led collective bargaining. It's the

responsibility of management and workers to talk to each other, facilitated by upper-level trade

union.

Answer: (Chris Chan) "Riot" historically used to refer to actions in early 19th century England

before labour unions. There are similarities between that usage and China's situation today. Is it

better to call them strikes? Some of the cases between 2004 and 2007 are more than strikes. A

manager was killed in one action, in addition to other unlawful acts.

The similarities between China and Vietnam are because of the legal framework. The labour law

is perfect on paper. China also tried to institute new laws in certain provinces regarding

collective bargaining after the 2010 strike. A Democratic Management Regulation was approved

in 2008 for Guangdong.

Question: What about replicating migrants centres in different countries?

Answer: (Fish Ip) The proposal to put up a migrants centre is already happening, though not in a

big scale, as in Indonesian migrants in the Netherlands. There should be emphasis on sharing and

communication across networks to build campaign actions together. Some of the challenges are

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on the language barrier and unstable Internet. A communication network of IDWF is to be

launched in December.

Question: Is there no resistance outside the wage sector and attempts to align the labour

movement with broader social struggles?

Answer: (Fahmi) we’re trying to achieve cross-sector struggles. What is the place of the labour

movement in the broader social struggle? What are possible inter-peoples' solidarity linkages?

We have to consider that the labour movement is a tiny part in Asia. In Indonesia, regional

alliances are the backbone of the general strike, not the central union.

Comment: The large spectrum of ideology in alliances is very wide indeed but it doesn't matter.

The general strike is still driven from the top-down.

Comment: Maybe there is a need for a reconfiguration of public understanding of workers'

situation? Will language politics come into play here? Is there a need for translation?

Question: Labour resistance seems to generally be directed against capitalism. Is there any

evidence that the resistance will be directed against capitalism itself?

Answer: (Chris Chan) A lot of the struggles are economic in nature. No anti-capitalism messages

at the moment.

(Surendra) The undercurrents are there. It may take time.

Group Discussion I: Building Alliances and Networks at Grassroots

The second half of the day was devoted to small group discussions. The guide questions were:

1. What have you learned from the panel discussion this morning? Tell the group one thing you

have learned.

2. In your experience, how are alliances formed? How and why have they succeeded or failed?

3. Draw from the experiences shared in your group. Name five key messages for yourselves in

building alliances / network at the grassroots level.

In the presentation, the groups were asked to identify their answers for number 3:

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Report from each Group

Group 1:

Alliance building needs good agenda-setting. How can we make issue-based alliances

more sustainable? How can we sustain a critical mass after that fight for a certain cause?

Awareness building particularly among women

Compromise

Having an international forum to raise different issues. Labour rights have no borders.

Campaign against agencies of migrant workers

Group 2:

Effective communication system

Resource sharing

Open your heart (building mutual support) toward an ecology of the labour movement

Democratic process is building alliance and decision-making process (not dominance and

dependence on sole organisation and effective mechanism to avoid and solve conflicts)

Sustainability of alliance

International platform

Group 3:

Grassroots awareness is important and a starting point to bring people in.

Participation with understanding. There should be a consensus on a common goal.

Provide members an opportunity to connect together through networking and shared

activities.

Build alliances beyond local level so members will feel solidarity beyond local level.

Define opponent. Not just state and employers but middle structures, such as heads and

trade union leaders.

Group 4:

Support each other.

Common principles should be the priority to avoid short-term alliances.

Commitment to fulfill your responsibilities in the alliance

Communication within the alliance

Recognition in terms of migrant workers' issues, such as Korean society needing to

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recognise migrants as part of society

Group 5

Alliance should be inclusive. Unions from extreme right to left, traditional to radical.

Alliance should be multi-sectoral. Workers' issues connected to broader issues.

Openness to learn from each other’s experiences (unions reaching out to unions and

building an alliance).

Unity as a practical strategy. Building unity within an industry to be able to support

workers' movement.

Persistent perception and consensus-building amid the constant misunderstanding.

Group 6

The group presented their answers to questions 1 and 3:

Question 1

Most important is workers' solidarity whether you are fighting for democracy, collective

bargaining, and minimum wage.

Different forms of organising and mass actions but it can succeed or fail even if you have

mass actions. It is not enough.

Demonstrations of domestic workers outside the house of their employers unlike in other

countries where they just file a complaint.

Global capitalism fragments the action of labour movement from laws to informalisation,

so trade unions must respond more "flexibly" and has to be more dynamic.

Response of state and capital to workers' resistance differ from country to country.

Workers' labour movement should prepare for future setbacks.

Level of militancy is escalating with similar forms. There should be more dialogue,

address more issues of policy reform in the economic system.

Question 3

Bring workers' issues to the public discourse.

Issues addressed must be relevant to all

Members of alliances should share responsibilities and resources.

Any alliances must have a core group.

Alliance should be open. Process of joining and quitting should be easy.

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Day 3

After mapping the labour movement in Asia and the emerging forms of resistance, the third day

focused on the future. Dae-oup Chang historicised the labour movement and the models bourne

out of Europe's experience in order to ask questions about the future of Asian labour. Samuel Li

Shing used the recent popular movement in Hong Kong to illustrate the relationship between

politics, economics, and labour. Joy Hernandez presented case studies of plantation and mining

workers as "stories of dispossession," contextualised in broader issues of land and human rights.

Finally, small group discussions focused on "visions of social transformation," in particular

proposals for an Asian Labour School.

Panel Discussion V

Presentation 13: "Rethinking the (Asian) Labour Movement" by Dae-Oup

Chang

Dae-Oup Chang began his presentation by asking which aspects of the labour movement deserve

rethinking today. Everything, he stressed: (1) whose movement is it? (2) For whom does it exist?

(3) What are its aims? (4) How does it achieve such aims? (5) What organisational form does it

take? (6) What are our models? Are they right or wrong? Better or worse?

He then historicised the labour movement in the West and defining key principles in its

inception. Unions, he pointed out, had pursued alternatives to increasingly dominant capitalist

social relations, market, commodities, private property, and anti-labour state. Collective

bargaining was not its main function at all, but rather building a community and creating a

common democracy for society. The usual "steps" in its evolution had been from (1) workers to

(2) unions to (3) parties to (4) state to (5) social transformation.

What happened during the "great" transformation of the labour movement was, after electoral

success, workers' parties became the managers of state but stopped short of moving toward

radical democratisation of society, losing its transformative dimension. Instead, it was a common

trend that unions got out of politics, and the tripartite system became the dominant mode of

engagement. There was also a de-politicisation of the concept of class and class-based

movement. Class lost its political dimension and became economic interest-based. As unions

retreated to factories, they became organisations for bargaining. The forward march stopped, no

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longer was the labour movement expanding to broader society, including its interrogation of

capitalist exploitation.

The so-called golden days of the labour movement from the 1950s to the 1960s was precipitated

by the largest capitalist boom from 1945 to late 1960s. There was a consensus between union

and capital, mediated by state, toward better productivity and wealth distributions. The world

witnessed the emergence of "standard" or "formal" labour, which resulted in labour laws and

standards.

In Asia, the labour movement emerged from anti-colonial movements. It was concentrated in

sectors and regions that had been significant to the colonial economies, like port cities, industrial

hubs, mining sites, plantations, railways, and trams. Organised labour became the most

established modern social organisation in nearly all countries, like Indonesia (five million), Korea

(500,000), Japan (60 percent union density post-WWII), Thailand, China, and India.

The labour movements in many countries were defeated by locally grown capital with strong

support from right-wing military and Cold War geo-politics. Their suppression by military

regimes, as in Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand, or integration into state and

capital, as in China, or a corporatist system, as in Japan, spelled doom for most. However, they

re-emerged in the 1980s, with vehement struggles in South Korea and the Philippines for

democratisation inspiring a new theory. There was also an autonomous workers' movement in

China, which soon faced a neoliberal offensive of global scale, cultivating exploitative practices.

With the ascent of the neoliberal path of development, Asia became the workshop of the world

as well as the biggest emerging market. Capitalist labour became the common substance of life.

Survival depends upon capitalist labour one way or another in both rural and urban life. There is

no longer any purely peasant economy. But while there was increase in standard formal labour

in the West, in Asia, there was no expansion of standard capitalist employment relations in the

traditional sense. Rather, what we saw was an increase in labour population with increasing

informality and insecurity. Unions an political parties had been unable to address this condition.

For Asia, therefore, should the course of action for the labour movement be the "usual" steps? It

should be noted that the European model is based upon the experience of a small segment of

the population. The so-called "golden days" were enjoyed by male industrial workers. The

Western experience is thus a peculiar model. For the Asian labour movement to abide by it is like

looking at a chronological evolution of the labour movement that isn't productive.

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The need, Dae-Oup said, is to focus on the real standard form of labour in Asia--move from

exclusion to inclusion, from citizens to working class then migrants, from production to

reproduction, from party politics to people's politics. Collective bargaining should means to the

build common democracy and not just the end of struggle. There is a need to develop a strategy

based on careful studies of our own experience in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

Presentation 14: "Democracy, Occupy Movement, and Grassroots Movement in

Hong Kong" by Samuel Li Shing-Hong

How should labour participate in a democracy? Would it be in a grassroots movement? What is

the relationship between politics, economics, and labour? The fight that is taking place in Hong

Kong is a case of David vs. Goliath. The movement's chief demand is universal suffrage for the

chief executive election for the head of Hong Kong's executive branch without the intervention

of the Chinese communist party. The actions of the largely student-led strike included breaking

into government offices amid police repression. Some 100,000 people came out. It was also the

first strike called by the trade union since the 1997 handover, although it should be noted that

participants were mostly from the bureaucracy, the middle class, and not from the grassroots.

The dialogue failed.

The actions, which included the strike, unlawful assembly, highway blockades, and direct

confrontation, went against common perceptions that Hong Kong people are mild. It offered a

new way to look at Hong Kong identity after decolonisation, as a process of getting back political

and economic power.

Hong Kong identity had traditionally been associated with favouring a neoliberal economy,

nationalistic but depoliticised, favouring economic power but not political power. In the ongoing

transformation of identity, we are starting to see fairness, localisation of identity, and increasing

civil rights consciousness. Class consciousness, however, remains nowhere in the equation.

Notable demographic information of strike participants and support include: 85 percent are

students, white collar workers, and self-employed; 55 percent have university-level degrees or

above; and 85 percent are younger than 35. Majority of the support come from the middle class,

while those with lower education tended not to support the movement.

What is needed? Political and economic struggle is a long-term and should be a sustainable

process. Organising is key, to begin in communities. An alliance needs strong grassroots

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membership base to gain legitimacy.

In the meantime, there is a need to connect the political and capitalist discourse because they

are related. The political state in Hong Kong is in favour of capitalism, with basic laws putting the

capitalist system and way of life as priority. In the parliament, 25 percent of seats are allotted for

business, with four percent left to labour, often to state and yellow unions. Legislations like the

minimum wage, maximum working hours, competition law, and universal retirement protection,

are routinely defeated. Welfare is used as merely a tool to relieve the anger of people, to

disguise the fact that the economic growth was occurring alongside increasing wealth gaps.

Popular grassroots movements in recent years include the right of abode movements, anti-

World Trade Organisation demonstrations, construction workers' strike, anti-high speed railway

campaign, dock workers' strike, as well as the minimum wage and pension campaigns.

In addition, there is fragmentation in the labour movement. How to unite workers, then? Labour

is impacted the most by unfair political and economic structures, as well as the coalition

between politicians and capitalists. Even so, the struggle is supported mostly by the middle class

and educated people. Where does the disconnect lie?

Presentation 15: "Stories of Dispossession in Plantation and Mining

Communities in the Philippines: Challenges of reclaiming rights and dignity"

by Joy Hernandez

The CARAGA Region in southern Philippines is one of the poorest in the country, with 31.9

percent of the population living below the poverty line. It's been ravaged by relentless

enterprises keen to take advantage of its rich natural resources like mining, logging, and palm oil

plantations.

Case study 1: Agusan Plantation, Inc. Established in 1983, 1,815 hectares, of mixed Singaporean

and Filipino ownership. Wages range from the mandated minimum of P258 (US$5.73) for daily

workers to as low as P.35 (US$ .008) for rat bat makers, who are often women. This wage

payment system and exploitative hiring system are able to persist because of union-busting.

One protest, demanding for regularisation of workers and higher wages, coincided with Typhoon

Pablo. The company closed down temporarily in May 2014, ostensibly due to losses from the

typhoon, but when it resumed operations, some of the old workers, especially union members,

were not hired. Other issues include safety concerns, as in skin discolourisation among workers

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because of the use of pesticides, child labour, and widespread fear. There is also a peculiar

recruitment arrangement in place in which a random person is tasked to hire groups of people in

exchange for 10 percent commissions and being subjected to group-guaranteed loans.

Case study 2: Filipinas Palm Oil Plantation, Inc. 8,429 hectares, of mixed Filipino and Indonesian

ownership. Covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program. When the agrarian reform

beneficiaries were formed into a cooperative, they entered into a lease-back agreement with the

corporation from 1988 to 2007 at a fixed lease rate rental of P635 (US$14) per hectare for year.

The contract was renewed for another 25 years through duplicitous means. Conditions somehow

improved after the takeover by the cooperative. Income of harvester now takes into account the

distance from a flat rate of P6 per fruit brunch. From an annual take-home of P5,000 from profit-

sharing schemes, it has now increased to P7,000 per quarter.

Case study 3: Brown Plantation. Established in 2011 after the company secured a permit from

the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Noted for their violation of ancestral

domain and human rights of the indigenous Higaonon tribe, who were forcibly and violently

evicted from their homes. Since they live in nature, it eroded their traditions and way of life and

bred a culture of warlordism. There were also killings of tribal leaders and trumped up charges

for those opposing the company.

Case study 4: Mining in the region has also destroyed the local way of life aside from rampant

informalisation. There is no regularisation for workers, who earn above the minimum wage but

whose work is seasonal. In particular, women street sweepers suffer greatly. Mining has

rendered other forms of livelihood obsolete, such as farming and fishing. Even water for

everyday use has become inaccessible because of pollution.

In the wake of these destructions, should the labour movement struggle for compliance with

labour standards, higher wages, and social protection? With peoples' very of life threatened, the

struggle should be against dispossession and beyond labour rights.

Questions and Comments on Panel Discussion V

Question: In Hong Kong, why are the poor not revolting?

Answer: (Elizabeth) The poor in Hong Kong has always been resisting. Strikes have been

organised by workers. No people's movement can come out of nothing. In the meantime, a lot of

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educating people is taking place. Students are not separate from the working class, objectively

speaking. Trade unions play a very important role in building alliances and coalitions.

(Samuel) The Umbrella Movement can be traced back to 40 years ago, in the colonial movement

in Hong Kong. Citizenship is not necessarily contradictory to working class consciousness.

Question: Should trade unions affiliate with parties or create their own?

Answer: (Dae-Oup) Unions create parties when they think they can. Electoral democracy is

double-edged. You participate in it but it treats all citizens as the same despite class differences.

But it can be used as a tool. As in the Chilean case in 1973, they built the trade union, the

political party, which didn't lose its ties with the unions and worked toward social

transformation. Let the party choose you because you're strong, not the other way around.

Question: How can migrant workers organise?

Answer: (Dae-Oup) For migrant workers, integrate in local work-based unions or create their

own. But because they earn the minimum wage, it's important to bargain at a society level,

direct action to state authority. There is schizophrenia in the capitalist system. The working class

is represented as citizens, but citizenship can destroy working class identity.

Question: How do you define the standard for of labour in Asia? How do we redefine

democracy? Whose freedom are we talking about In the case of Joy's presentation, plantation

already existed from colonial times and is now integrated in a global agro-business industry.

Monsanto, which controls food seeds of the world, conducts the biggest research studies in

universities. There is a link in agro-industrial business, from killing you to controlling your food.

Answer: (Dae-Oup) On a conceptual level, classes of labour rely upon the capitalist system,

directly or indirectly. Politics always attend the standard form of labour. It did not stay inside the

factory and instead spread across society. The condition that we have in Asia is different from

1950s and 1960s Europe.

Also, the standard and golden age of labour movements primarily concerned men in

industrialised countries and Japan. Women and immigrants, who have been doing precarious

work, are left out. Why is the same model being used then in Asia despite the long feminizisation

of industries like garments?

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(Joy) It's primarily an issue of land. In the Philippines, there are many instances of plantation land

being covered by land reform but the new owners would just become workers of plantation

companies again. There are schemes to take advantage of loopholes in the law and sometimes

deceit on the part of employers, like in the renewal of the lease in API.

Question: In Vietnam, should we rethink the identity of working class in terms of alliance with

private sub-contracting enterprises?

Answer: (Dae-Oup) Only if the working class wants to. If we go by the step-by-step theory of

revolution, the idea of aligning with the national bourgeoisie is not a new idea. The point is to

slowly radicalise the national bourgeoisie. But 99 percent of the case resulted to the

subordination of the working class to the national bourgeoisie. It's like subjecting the labour

movement into inter-capital competition.

Question: Can you elaborate on the Chilean case?

Answer: (Dae-Oup) Chile's case is an example of pursuing the model to the extreme while all

others have given up at a certain point. Victory in the elections was utilised to genuinely pursue

more radical democracy. But after the failure, they became a neo-liberal movement. There was

nationalisation of industries, like the copper mines, which make up 50 percent of its exports. It

also instituted welfare rather than invest the gains from its nationalised industries.

Comment: (Apo) We were also baptised by colonial trade unionism. There was a time when

union leaders were being sent to the UK, during the Cold War. How do we judge KCTU then? Is

this the model we aspire? Brazil? Polish? China? Singapore? We must be critical of these models.

Question: The grassroots are so underprivileged. What causes their fragmentation and

reluctance to support the movement? Are they culturally more obedient? Peaceful? Is it an

economic necessity?

Answer: (Dae-Oup) Often, the working class is used as statistical method. We need to

understand the working class as an experience, as a process. We have to rely upon communal

experiences as an alternative to the market. Today, we are working class at the workplace but

individuals at home. We must enjoy things together. The identity of the working class is an

alternative to what exists in the market today.

Question: Which to prioritise?

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Answer: (Dae-Oup) There must be focus on sectors that can cost the maximum harm on the

basic foundation of capitalist system. What happens is, when trade unions achieve success, the

top layer of the working class becomes detached from other sectors, like women and migrants.

In the case of female-dominated but male-led sectors, drive away the male leaders. Transition to

female leadership.

Answer: (Joy) In the examples I presented, it's difficult. Like in the mining communities,

everything has been destroyed. There are no other alternatives. So if you demand better rights,

at least you have social protection, regularisation. In plantations, it is really land. The bigger

challenge is the context in which it operates. Militarisation in the countryside. Those who are

organised are threatened and harassed.

Sanjiv Pandita wrapped up the discussion by situating it in the larger purview of the struggle for

social transformation, laid out by Dae-Oup. How do we go about the transformative process? If

plantation companies have stolen our life of dignity that had existed from the pre-colonial times?

He stressed that some mechanisms have linked workers to the system. Agreeing to collective

bargaining, however, keeps the system alive. Can we live without palm oil? Can we organise to

fight Walmart and not just organise Walmart workers? Engaging the system, he said, can make

us fall into the trap of supporting the system.

Group Discussion II: Vision on Labour Movement in Asia and its Challenges

The small group discussions revolved around ideas for social transformation in labour

movements in Asia.

Report from each Group (Question 1: "What is the vision of social

transformation shared by labour movements in Asia?")

Group 1

All the rights of workers

No capitalisation

Socialism

The working class as the ruling party

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Group 2

For Bangladesh: influence policy to become friendly to workers

For the Philippines: formulation of united political and economic alliance; laws in accordance

with ILO standards, implementation; building up of a common platform to protect the rights

of labour

Grassroots people and organisations involved in policy decision making

Policy and government being accountable to workers

Human dignity

Group 3

Collective struggle for full respect for human rights, including women

Society seeing the value of domestic work

Decent wages for all workers as well as non-economic benefits

Democratic participation from other sectors to push government

Just and fair society where work is valued

Eliminate wage exploitation, wealth distributed according to need

Group 4

Building political power of labour at every level of society and sector

Building peoples' economy and peoples' control of the economy--collective economy

Democratising society and the working class movement; equality among people, elimination

of the gap between rich and poor

As the working class is highly diverse, we should find a way to deal with the diversity; focus

on understanding each other toward a non-hierarchical society in terms of gender, race,

ethnicity, etc., among nations

Social transformation in the long-term

A life-centered society, rather than an exploitative work-centered society

Working class liberated from exploitation, must be aligned with other sectors of society

Group 5

Relations between people, between men and women are free from exploitation; justice and

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equality for all

Relations between human and nature, harmony, giving time for nature reproduce instead of

intervening with the natural system with technology

Alternative production and consumption systems, a production regime based on use and not

for profit; social equity, decent jobs with dignity, human rights; transcending liberal

individualistic concept of human rights; sustainable democratic economy; radical democracy

plus communalisation of necessary industry on the basis of need plus welfare for all

Going beyond political advocacy, pursuing economic alternatives while pursuing political

economies

Struggles need to include construction of alternatives

Group 6

Labour movement developing innovative vision or doing something new

Workers' livelihood can get better and better off with lower inequality among the rich and

the poor

Alliance-building and raise awareness toward decent work and sustainable livelihood

Protection and promotion of workers' rights as well as human rights

Report from each Group (Question 2: "What are the challenges to the labour

movements in Asia?")

Group 1

Globalisation, privatisation, mechanisation

The political party

Mass media

Some labour movements

Value of people

Group 2

Labour mobility, migration, precarious work

No recognition from state as workers

Fragmentation in ideologies

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Horizontal linkage between workers

Political interference

Leadership, building up of a second line of leadership

Gender participation and leadership

Lack of freedom of association, unprotected by legal framework

Group 3

Non-implementation of labour laws

Lack of time to organise

Non-inclusion of domestic workers in trade unions

Repression from government, profit-centered character of government

Stigma against trade unions

Lack of focus on other sectors

Fear of organising

Difficult fight against TNCs

Collusion between state and capital

Group 4

Economy is global but labour movements tend to be national or local

Working class is geographically dispersed, within value chains

Class fragmentation

Caste and religious-based divisions among working class, political divisions among workers'

movements

Lack of ideological understanding that reinforces divisions

Group 5

Protest against being inclusive

Dictatorship of number

Not questioning the march of modern science and technology

Lack of real alliances

Lack of transformative plan and collective initiative

Lack of attempts to construct alternatives that bears new possibilities in the future

Lack of education regarding alternative economies

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Group 6

Military suppression, as in Cambodia

Political suppression and lack of core labour rights like freedom of association and collective

bargaining

Lack of financial independence, or dependence on foreign funding, and low or unsustainable

due-paying membership

Lack of vision for the labour movement

Lack of vision on political transformation

Wage discrepancy as in Korea

Economic recession

Wage gap within union membership

Group Discussion III: Solidarity Building

Another small group discussion focused on coalition building. Groups were asked to identify

solidarity actions at the regional level and issues that we can undertake as a campaign, advocacy,

etc. In addition, name country and regional level issues, which can be addressed through

initiatives that may fall under labour education, labour research, organising, network and alliance

building, and advocacy campaign.

Report from each group

Group 1

In China, an issue is occupational safety and health; in Hong Kong, working hours; in the

Philippines, flexibilisation, freedom of association, violence against unions; in Cambodia and

India, minimum living wage; for India, national legislation and enforcement of the ILO

Convention on Domestic Workers.

Their recommendations include strengthening existing alliance and network at national and

regional levels; exchange programs; and learning best practices from partners

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Group 2

National issues include low minimum wage, labour flexibilisation, trade union rights, lack of

awareness among workers of their rights, enforcement of newly passed law on domestic

workers in the Philippines, the implementation of law in Hong Kong, and building genuine

democracy

Regional issues include living wage to build worker awareness and importance of direct

collective action; a regional labour education program designed for workers to question

exploitative practices, which should include formal and informal workers, with educational

modules highlighting experiences to stress that it's a systemic problem

In terms of process, the group recommends assembling a political working group composed

of elected leaders of mass organisations to lay out the formal of the curriculum of the

political education and the implementation plan; a technical working group will then fill in

the campaign to design proposal in more detail; to start in 2015, with resources seen to

mostly be in the form of people's time, especially regarding translation

Group 3

National issues include organising migrant workers, especially domestic workers; researches

on social protection of informal workers and migrant workers in all countries

Regional campaign may include networking among sending countries, such as India,

Cambodia, the Philippines, Bangladesh, and Vietnam, and receiving countries, like Hong

Kong, Malaysia, and South Korea; strengthening platform to advocate social protection;

regional researches on migrant workers; advocacy on rectification of the ILO Convention and

bilateral trade agreements

Group 4

In a globalised system of contemporary capitalism, inter-regional solidarity is not an

additional requirement but an integral part. We need to address the thinking of trade unions

and peoples' movements that regional solidarity is merely an additional requirement.

The labour school to promote inter-regional collaboration, to problematise the multiple

dimension of labour as subordinated under the bigger system of capitalism; curricular

development.

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Group 5

National issues include minimum wage for all

Solidarity education, the need for labour education so workers will understand why it's

needed, and what level is exploitative, a balance between different kinds of workers; also a

campaign for legal reform

Regional issues include minimum wage for all and land grabbing

Their recommendations are building alliances between trade unions and civil societies,

including those who need care, such as mothers' association and students, as well as

alliances among all trade union centers

Comments and recommendations

Need for a needs-based assessment and inputs beforehand to tailor-fit the sessions;

resources, like hand-outs and materials, should also be made available beforehand so

attendees do not come empty-handed

More focused panels depending on region and level of expertise

A seeming tilt toward the formal sector

Different needs between grassroots organisers and strategic planners in terms of knowledge

and sharing of experiences, a distinction between academics and practitioners

Suggestion to add a session on health and safety issues for migrant workers

Suggestion to conduct an international-level solidarity-building workshop

Sanjiv once again wrapped up the discussions by disabusing participants of the difference

between the theoretical and the practical. He related an anecdote about a group of Scottish

workers who were complaining of their inability to find jobs despite advanced degrees. A group

of Cambodians, seeing the lush green countryside, asked the Scotts why they wouldn't use the

land. We have been detached from land for so long, and it is not theoretical. In a system, he said,

when our lives are being consumed, how do we look outside it? What is the alternative?

Alternatives should come from the everyday. Our forefathers had their lives under their control.

And so, if we're discussing about minimum wage, must we continue with this discussion or must

we look ahead, he asked. Must we engage and work within the system or think of an alternative?

If I want a life independent of corporations, to wake up happy and not be burdened by the need

to work, how can we make a society that makes that possible?

***

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List of Participants

Country Organisation Participant

Bangladesh Bangladesh Occupational Safety Health

and Environment Foundation (OSHE)

1. Saki Rizwana

Domestic Workers Rights Network (DWRN)

/ Bangladesh Institute of Labour Studies

(BILS)

2. Mohammad Nazrul

Islam

Law Life Culture 3. Md. Rezaur Rahman

Cambodia Cambodian Labor Confederation 4. Sun Ly Hov

Cambodian Food and Service Workers'

Federation (CFSWF)

5. Umken Kanhasophary

Cambodia Domestic Workers Network

(CDWN)

6. Chum Chamm

Hong Kong City University of Hong Kong 7. Chris King Chi Chan

Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions

(HKCTU)

8. LAU Sin-nga

Hong Kong Federation of Asian Domestic

Workers Unions (FADWU)

9. Cheung Yin Foon

India

Centre for Workers Education (CWE) 10. Surendra Pratap Upadhyay

Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA)

11. Kavita Malviya 12. Nalini Nayak

National Domestic Workers Movement (NDWM)

13. Clarammal Panipitchai

Indonesia Konfederasi Pergerakan Rakyat Indonesia/Confederation of Indonesian People's Movement

14. Anwar Maruf

National Union Confederation (Konfederasi Serikat Nasional – KSN)

15. Nuzulun Ni’mah

Federation of Independent Trade Unions (Gabungan Serikat Buruh Independen-GSBI)

16. Erna Wati

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Sedane Labor Resource Center (Lembaga Informasi Perburuhan Sedane – LIPS)

17. Abu Mufakhir

Malaysia

Electronic Industry Employees Union Western Region (EIEUWR)

18. Saharuddin Adnan

Netherlands University of Amsterdam 19. Dennis Arnold Pakistan

Pakistan Institute of Labour Education & Research

20. Zeenia Shaukat

Philippines

Ecumenical Institute for Labor Education and Research, Inc. (EILER)

21. Anna Leah Escresa

Labor Education and Research Network (LEARN)

22. Jennifer Auria C. Albano

Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa (SENTRO)

23. Novelita Polisoc 24. Christine V. Arevalo 25. Himaya Montenegro

Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR)

26. Daisy Arago 27. Jane Siwa

South Korea

Research Institute for Alternative Workers' Movement

28. Cho, Eun-seok

National House Managers’ Cooperatives (NHMC)

29. Changsoon Yeom 30. Peng

United Kingdom SOAS. University of London 31. Dae-Oup Chang United States of America

International Union League for Brand Responsibility

32. Liana Dalton

Vietnam

Center for Industrial Relations Development

33. Chau Quoc Hung

Organizers

Asia Monitor Resource Centre (AMRC) 34. Sanjiv Pandita 35. Fahmi Panimbang 36. Samuel Li Shing

Hong 37. Christal Chan 38. Joy Hernandez 39. Apo Leong

International Domestic Worekrs Federatrion (IDWF)

40. Elizabeth Tang 41. Fish Ip

School of Labor and Industrial Relations University of the Philippines (UP SOLAIR)

42. Jonathan Sale 43. Rene Ofreneo 44. Melisa Serrano

Logistics 45. Wendy Dunasco Documentation and minute taker 46. Glenn Diaz