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Time for workers to ask for more

Published: 2 April 2008
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UNI Regional Secretary Christopher Ng, Regional President Joe de Bruyn and Nguyen Hoa Binh of VGCL





UNI group meets Vietnam's DeputyInformation and Communication Minister Tran Duc Lai





UNI-Asia Pacific Executive in session in Hanoi





Vietnamese trade unions attend Executive meeting





Hoang Thi Tuyen from the Post & Telecom Union, Vietnam
 It’s time for workers to ask for more, UNI General Secretary Philip Jennings told a historic first meeting of the UNI-Asia Pacific Executive in Hanoi, Vietnam.

The aim is to reverse a general decline in the share of economic wealth going to working families and the growing inequalities of a globalising economy.

“In the United States the division of wealth is now the same as at the end of the 1920’s,” Philip told the Executive. “With inflation on the rise it’s becoming more difficult for working people to provide for their families. We have to ask for more and ensure that wealth being produced is shared fairly by working people.” Campaigns to reverse the situation are already emerging, including in Europe.



UNI’s first Vietnamese affiliate is the Post and Telecom union and - as part of a transition from a centrally controlled economy to a market economy that includes recent membership of the World Trade Organisation - Vietnam faces big economic changes.

“Industrial relations is becoming more complicated and economic integration increases the risk of unemployment and the fragmentation of incomes,” said Nguyen Hoa Binh, Senior Vice-President of the Vietnamese trade union centre. “Our priorities have to include the organisation of workers in the growing private sector and to improve training for our workplace reps in the market economy.”

Hoang Thi Tuyen, the post and telecom union’s Vice President, thanked UNI-Asia Pacific for its ten-year programme that has trained union officials and representatives in her country and given them the opportunity to take part in regional activities.



A UNI delegation spent 1 April in a series of meetings with Vietnamese government ministers and officials and unions.

“There is no doubt that Vietnam is on the fast track to change. Membership of the WTO means economic change. If multinationals are not already in Vietnam, they are on the way,” said Philip Jennings after the meetings.

Economic growth is one of the highest in the region - more than 8% last year - although inflation is nearly 16%. 70% of Vietnam’s population of 87 million people is under 30 years of age and 70% of the workforce has not received formal training.

In the post and telecom sectors Vietnam’s economic transformation will mean corporatisation and competition. “We know you face enormous challenges, including ensuring a fair distribution of wealth in Vietnam,” Philip told union representatives at the Executive meeting - which was also attended by Vietnamese finance and commerce unions.

Possible cooperation to assist Vietnamese migrant workers in Malaysia was discussed during a meeting with Labour Deputy Minister Nguyen Than Hoa. About 120,000 Vietnamese are thought to be working in Malaysia and many face discrimination. The offer of cooperation came from Mohamed Shafie BP Mammal, who chairs UNI’s Liaison Council in Malaysia that has been active in setting up help desks to give assistance to migrant workers.



The current credit crunch and global, financial instability demands changes in the way financial markets operate, Philip Jennings told the regional executive.

“It’s important that we force changes now in the regulation and transparency of the financial system. Business as usual cannot continue because it’s not working for the real economy and the people. Instead it’s driven by greed.”

He urged UNI-Asia Pacific to focus on the growth of casualisation, subcontract work and agency labour in the region.

UNI-Asia Pacific President Joe de Bruyn, of SDA Australia, told delegates that the new Labor government there should implement a programme of fairer labour laws by 1 January, 2010. This follows last November’s historic election in Australia that threw out the conservative John Howard government that had been undermining collective bargaining and workers’ conditions with the propagation of individual contracts and watered down protections against unfair dismissal.

“Events in Australia display the role of unions in representing their members and their part n the democratic process if members are threatened,” said Joe.

Australian unions financed a three-year campaign that included television adverts exposing the impact of the conservative labour laws on working families and targeted election efforts in 24 marginal seats.