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UNI Apro and LO TCO visit Dong Nai Provincial Trade Union and Binh Duong Provincial Trade Union on 26th September 2008. They were also invited to meet with workers from Minh Long 1 Company Ltd, a locally owned porcelain wares company in Dong Nai and Big “C”, a multinational company in Binh Duong.



We were met by Bro. Hang, President of Binh Duong Provincial Trade Union and his team of trade union officials. Binh Duong a key economic area of Vietnam is 30 kilometer from HCM city with a population of 1.2 million people. The working percentage of its population is 52%. It has 660,000 migrant workers with a growing trend of 50,000 migrant workers seeking employment in this Export Processing Zone. The population of migrant workers stands at 1.8 million people to-date. It has 7,968 foreign investment projects that account for nearly 50 billion dong that involves companies from 40 countries. The main economical activity at 64.4% is the industries. With such high number of migrant workers - housing is a problem.



Binh Duong Provincial Union has 1,917 enterprise trade unions as it members with a workforce of 457,667 of which 70% are unionized workers. To assist the trade union members and workers, the union provide legal aid consultation offices, monitor and implement the laws, provide social and cultural activities, provide publications to its members and most importantly, coordinated regular dialogs with the government, civil society, workers and community. Minimum wages for the domestic and foreign owned companies are different with the domestic wages pegged lower than that of the foreign owned companies. Local disputes leading to strike is a headache for the Provincial Trade Union as this year, there were more than 100 strikes. Compared to the other EPZs this is not a high number. In most cases the disputes are solved after the Provincial Trade Union arbitrates. The disputes are normally caused by non-payment of wages, company that break their bonus payments to the workers and non willingness of the companies to enter into negotiation.



They also thanked UNI Apro and LO TCO Sweden for allowing them to participate as a beneficiary of the Vietnam Country Project that has made their union officials work more efficiently with the new founded skills and knowledge.



The Minh Long 1 Company Ltd (Web: MinhLong.Com) was established in 1970 by a third generation ceramic artist Mr Ly Ngoc Minh. It is now developed into an internationally well known company manufacturing in high quality ceramic and porcelain wares with France being it largest foreign importer of their goods. We were met with Mr. Ly Huy Sang the Vice Director of the company together with the trade union officials. Mr Sang brief us on the impressive development of its company. The owners of the company belief firmly that the employees are the assets of the company thus they provide annual trainings to its workers to up grade their skills and to ensure that the workers and their family as well taken care of by way providing decent working conditions. The company also pays out a yearly bonus of at least one month wages for each of its employees as well as a paid holiday annually organized by the company. Transportation is provided for its employees. The company’s is 100% unionized with 1,500 union members under its enterprise trade union that was established in 1991. The industrial relations between the employer and employee are very good thus should any dispute arise, it will be settled amicably between the Board of Directors and the Labour Union. There is an existing Collective Bargaining Agreement. The past few years with an increasing inflation has meant that the cost of living is higher, the management had automatically increased the monthly salary and welfare for its workers to ensure a good living standard. Mr Sang mentioned that the company believes that they must be pro-active in looking after their staff’s welfare to provide whatever is necessary without being asked. We were showed their three floors show room, admired the extra-ordinary fine porcelains pieces (work of art) and spoke to the workers. In particular, the Swedish delegations were showed a specially designed tea set that was presented by the Vietnam Delegation to the Swedish King when they visited Sweden.



The afternoon meeting in Dong Nai Provincial Trade Union with Ms Le Thi My Le, Vice President and Bro. Ho Thanh Hong, Acting Chief of Admin & Director of Organising was also very interesting as this is another Export Processing Zone with 27 Industrial Zones where out of the 500,000 workers in the unionized enterprises 81% are union members. About 50% of the workers are in the foreign and private sector. It is estimated that there are more than 6,000 UNI Apro Sector employees.



Its challenges are for the negotiation and signing of quality Collective Bargaining Agreements. They have a success rate of 50% despite making a lot of efforts to get more signed. In general there are two types of strikes namely the violation of rights where the employers do not follow the law and the other is based on employees interest which is the benefits negotiated with the employer. Lately the labour disputes are mainly due to the increase in inflation rate that has pushed up the cost of living by 20 -30% where the employees are seeking re-negotiation or adjustment of their wages and benefits.



The issues faced by this province is similar to that of Binh Duong and Ho Chi Minh as together with Dong Nai, these three cities are also known as the golden triangle of EPZs. While the Vietnamese unionized companies has contributed 2% of the employees wages to the trade union for the welfare of its members, the recent decree to collect 1% from foreign enterprise has not been implemented yet putting a strain to the union’s resources. The unions preferred harmonious industrial relations not confrontation relations. The union has strike funds but they are happy to report that there was no need to utilize these funds to-date.



They also accorded their appreciation to UNI Apro and the LO TCO Sweden as the people that were trained had seek election into executive council levels of their unions and continued to represent workers in the most professional way. They seek UNI Apro to intensify the number of courses.



Big “C” Supermarket with a chain of 8 stores in Vietnam is a popular shopping area as there are also departmental stores rented out to the tenants. We had the pleasure to meet with Mr. Dung Huu Thri, President of Big “C” Dong Nai and his team. We had an intense discussion about their collective agreement, the structure of the Big “C” trade unions in Vietnam and workers issue in the supermarkets and hyper malls in Vietnam.



The trade union was set up in 1998 and to-date the company employs 551 full time workers of which 75% are unionized. While the relation between the employers and the union is cordial, the union was very interest to learn about the practice, terms and conditions of work in the same industry in other parts of the world. The working hours, payment and skills requirement are a bit different in this service industry compared to office work.



Christopher Ng, Regional Secretary of UNI Apro highlighted the use of the Global Framework Agreements in UNI sectors and is happy to extend our cooperation with this union. We are also give a tour of the store areas and the tenants areas. We continued discussion on the trade union movement over a hot cup of delicious Vietnamese coffee before returning to Ho Chi Minh City in the evening.



The UNI Apro & LO TCO Sweden evaluation team comprises of Christopher Ng, Regional Secretary UNI Apro, Alice Chang, UNI Apro, Marie Kihlberg Nelving, UNIONEN, Sweden, Maria Nyberg, Union of Commercial Employees, Sweden and assisted by Pham Thi Thu Lan from VGCL, International Department.





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