20 July, 2010Participants in a four country seminar organized by the International Metalworkers' Federation agree on three golden rules for future trade union sustainability in the South East Asia region.
THAILAND: Trade union leaders from four countries met from July 13 to 15 to discuss a strategic plan for the International Metalworkers' Federation in Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Participants in the meeting adopted a strategic plan that aims to strengthen the trade union movement across the four vitally important countries and to build solidarity locally, regionally and at the global level. The plan is based on three golden rules:
1. Non-competition amongst affiliates (respect)
2. Long term must strengthen the IMF
3. Build co-operation and solidarity amongst affiliates /Globally/Regionally/Locally
The seminar began with an evaluation of the IMF's work in the region since its Congress in Vienna in 2005. The evaluation showed that IMF increased its activities in union building and organizing in the region. Yet in the majority of countries, despite organizing new members, this had yet to translate into a growth in IMF affiliation. In fact, in the majority of cases the level of affiliation had come down. However, participants believed that the IMF Action Programme had been widely integrated into the national approaches in the majority of the unions in the four countries.
A positive example on the IMF's equal rights work, which is part of the Action Programme, was provided by Darmawati Anwar of FSPMI Indonesia who stated, "The role of the IMF has been great, and the women workers of FSPMI have become stronger in bargaining power. Women also constitute 30 per cent of officials in all levels of the union now under the constitution of the union."
Participants also shared information on organizing strategies and discuss how to build future sustainable approaches. Despite each country having a different culture and each union having a different history some synergies emerged among the four countries. One such example was the low wages paid to workers in the four countries, which in turn meant that unions set very low levels of dues payments. Charlee Loysong of TEAM Thailand confirmed this saying that, "Unions due in TEAM are based on a percentage of salary." The minimum wage in Thailand is 206 Baht per day or 7.60CHF. The meeting heard that the commitment and role of enterprise-based unions also had an impact on dues collection and the ability to strengthen national structures.
Representatives of the IMF's executive committee members in the region (Australia, Indonesia, and Japan) provided an overview of the different approaches and structures within the development of their own unions. In addition, Terry Pye of Unite the Union in the United Kingdom explained the process of how many unions had merged to form Unite, Europe's largest union, despite many different cultures. Following the presentations a discussion on developing sustainable union structures took place. The outcome contained in the strategic plan was that the four countries needed to develop a more sophisticated approach to measuring and quantifying the sustainability of their structures.
At the conclusion of the seminar and after adoption of the strategic plan, Arunasalam IMF Region Representative stated, "This seminar is the start of a journey towards a new era of strengthening trust in the region and a strong motivator for taking action towards a stronger union presence in these vitally important countries." He added "A new approach will allow us to strengthen our skills in building strong independent unions."
If you wish to receive a copy of the different presentations on organizing, please email your request to Amandine Iwachow. .