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“We hope that unions can adopt a democratic industrial relation with their companies so that they can secure the decent work agenda based on labour laws,” said Hiroshi Yamakawa, Assistant General Secretary of UA Zensen. “The union and management first need to have mutual respect and stand on equal footing so that unions can be free from subordinate workplace positions and for democratic industrial relations to be possible.”

Yamakawa was speaking at the UNI MLC Malaysia / UA Zensen Japan Forum on “Management and Union Working In Partnership to Grow Company and Union” held in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia 5 December 2013. The forum was held in partnership with UA Zensen and was attended by Malaysian affiliates from the various commerce unions in Malaysia. Along with Yamakawa was a delegation from the Federation of AEON Group Workers’ Union with Kenji Niizuma, President, Tetsu Murakami, Chairperson of the International Group, and Mana Okada, Vice Chairperson of the International Group.

Kenji Niizuma shared the structure of AEON Retail Workers’ Union in Japan and its industrial relations principles. The union hopes that by expanding its business, the AEON company can contribute to the development of each country and improve the economic and social status of workers by developing democratic labour movements.

When told of the struggles of unions in Malaysia, Niizuma said that even though countries may have different labour laws, all companies will share the wish to have a sound industrial relationship with its workers and hopes that unions will not give up on their goal towards building a democratic labour movement.

This was also reiterated by Yamakawa who said that hostile industrial relations are unsustainable and cannot solve problems. Instead, it is important for unions and management to establish mutual trust and be able to stand on equal footing so that they can enjoy a democratic labour relationship.

Christopher Ng, Regional Secretary of UNI Apro, highlighted that the hostile image of trade unions need to be revamped so that unions and managements can build trusting partnership for a harmonious industrial labour movement. He explained that the respect and trust between unions and management in Japan took many years to cultivate, since local unions cannot assume to enjoy the same relationship, it will be their challenge to build a working relationship with the local management.

The forum also included an interactive session moderated by Mohamed Shafie BP Mammal, President of UNI Malaysian Labour Centre, with Satoshi Tamai, UNI Apro Director of Organising, Rajendra Acharya, UNI Apro Director of Trade Union Development Activities, and Alice Chang, UNI Apro Director of Commerce. The speakers shared their experiences and case studies on how to establish trade unions. They added that unionists need to put on more confidence, to be a good listener, and to use creative ways to organize and reach out to different profiles.