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UNI Apro unions have set a plan to Break Through in countries throughout the Asia & Pacific region to increase union membership, win bargaining rights at more companies and fight for a fair deal for workers.



The unions came together at the 3^rd UNI Apro Regional Conference in Manila. President Begnino Aquino addressed the conference and said his administration wants to make things better for Filipino workers.



“By better we mean turning working abroad into a choice, as opposed to the necessity that it has become for a lot of our countrymen; we mean allowing the common Filipino worker to have enough resources so that when he comes home, tired from a long day at work, he may be rewarded with time with his family, a well-deserved rest, and a full plate for dinner,” Aquino said. “But we realize that we also have to do this responsibly: we have to balance interests; we have to make sure that the investors who give jobs to our people continue to operate here.”



Aquino said he would do more to build a national tripartite structure for social dialogue, continue to increase the minimum wage, and create good jobs at home so that Filipino workers feel they have another option besides going abroad to work.



UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings welcomed Aquino’s remarks and said that the region needs strong unions and a social floor to ensure decent working conditions. Union density has to climb and collective bargaining has to spread, he said. If not, the Asian economy of two faces - of vast wealth and a precarious workforce - will grow.



“We want you to succeed in building a social contract here in the Philippines, to bring a social contract to Asia, to bring a social contract to the world,” Jennings said in a speech to Aquino and the UNI Apro delegates. “We ask you to take that dream of equality for all to Asia and to the world. It is a message working people are desperate to hear.”



At the conference delegates endorsed the 40 percent gender balance rule that seeks to ensure all UNI leadership structures contain at least 40 percent of members from each gender.



Unions across the region reported on their plans to Break Through for union rights and recognition.



Japanese union UI Zensen reported progress on its case against AOKI Holdings Inc. for union busting. UNI’s Japanese said they want to increase their membership by 100,000 to 1.1 million. Nepalese unions want to double membership to UNI to over 100,000.



UNI’s Malaysia Liaison Council said that it will focus on recruitment of new members in the services sector with a particular emphasis on the commerce and telecommunications industries. Apro affiliates with work with UNI Telecom to get telecom multinationals Telenor and TeliaSonera to sign Global Agreements.



UNI Apro delegates gave their support to the 3,000 bank workers on strike at Standard Chartered Korea First Bank. The Indian bank unions will go on general strike in August.



Delegates from the region also welcomed the plan for a mission to visit the All-China Federation of Trade Unions in Beijing in 2011.



The UNI Apro affiliates elected Tomoyasu Kato, from Japanese telecom union ICTJ, to replace Joe de Bruyn, from Australia’s Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association, as regional president. De Bruyn was elected President of UNI Global Union in November at the UNI World Congress. Chris Ng was reelected regional secretary for Apro.



“Unions are part of the modern world,” Jennings said. “We have answers for the globalised world, for a world at peace with social justice. We want all people to be free from fear, free from oppression, to share in the fruits of their labour.”



Photo credit: Malacañag Photo Bureau

You can find more photos here and here.



The text of President Aquino's speech is available online here or you can watch the video here.



The text of Philip Jennings's speech is online here.



The text of a speech by UNI President Joe de Bruyn is online here.