News

18 participants from Thailand, Malaysia, India and Australia attended the Multinationals Working Group seminar held recently in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.



The UNI Apro Regional Secretary Chris Ng opened the seminar and spoke about the shift in the world economy to Asia and how important it is that with this economic growth that we organise workers into the unions.



The country reports on the organising activity that has been undertaken in the last 12 months was very encouraging with growth in union membership continuing. The commitment and energy that the unions are showing is proof that the project is having an impact and the ongoing support of the Swedish Union GS and the LO-TCO is most welcome



It was interesting to listen to how even these countries are now experiencing the move of manufacturing to China and India, for example a large printer in Kuala Lumpur who printed the instruction manuals for a large mobile phone company has now laid off over 100 workers because that company moved their manufacturing plant to China, no country is safe from impact of globalisation.



Amcor who recently completed its purchase of the packaging division of Alcan has now closed 3 of the 4 plants in Malaysia using synegies, restructuring and shareholder value as the reason for these closures.



The seminar spent considerable time discussing the strategies for the next 12 months for organising and campaigning for collective agreements in multinational companies.



One of the major challenges that unions face is the battle for trade union recognition. Even when workers make a clear decision to join a union many companies use the appeal mechanisms to delay and frustrate the formal recognition.