This exchange meeting with the grass-root organisers from the electronics sector was organised to follow up with the meeting the ATNC Network organised in April 2005 in Hong Kong. The first meeting held in Hong Kong was organised out of the recognition that the electronics sector in the Asian region was an increasingly important sector in the Asian countries not only because of the size of investment but also the socio-political impact it has on influencing government labour policies and practices such as blatant busting of the labour organising activities; as well as fostering fear and ‘myths’ against labour organising. The fact that workers in the electronics sector are the least organised and union busting is most notorious is well-known and yet the particular obstacles behind that need specific address. Based on this, the participants in the Hong Kong meeting to decided that an exchange meeting between the grass-root organisers in the sector should be held. Exchange and sharing between grass-root organisers from trade unions and non-government organisations directly involved in organising the electronics sector had not been held in the region. Such exchange between organisers bearing different experiences and capacities would provide participants with better understanding of the industry’s investment and practices, and most important of all, promote mutual solidarity and identification of common platform for regional actions and further capacity building. This second meeting specific on the electronics sector was organised in Bogor, Indonesia, from 19 to 20 November 2005. There were 4 trade unions and 28 organisers from 7 countries including the Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, India, Malaysia, Japan, Korea attending. We started by inviting the organisers to talk about the situation of labour organising in the industry in different countries. The concrete organising cases that the participants have been directly involved in are given focused discussion to draw the experiences that have been learned.

Map of Organising Activities in the Electronics Industry

The electronics industry in Indonesia

In Indonesia, most of the electronics companies are Trans-national companies (TNCs) from Singapore, Malaysia, Japan, China, Korea. Their investment was concentrated in 5 industrial areas in Bekasi, Karawang of West Java, Jakarta, Bogor, Tangerang, Surabaya in East Java, Batam Island as well as some part of Sumatra Island. There are approximately 50,000 workers employed in the electronics sector in Indonesia.

There are roughly 35 unions most of which are found in Japanese, Korean and Taiwanese companies. In Bekesi area of West Java alone, the number of electronics workers are roughly around 30,000 and 23,000 of them (8000 male and 14,000 female) are unionised. These are company-based trade unions. Freedom of association (FOA) is a main problem although the right to FOA and collective bargaining is legislated in 1999. Organising workers into trade unions however is complicated either by the fact that workers are not well informed about union rights; or they lack the incentive to join the trade union since they are hard pressed by the working conditions (such as long distance travelling in the case of workers living in central Java having to work in Bekesi in the west) and inadequate subsistence due to low payment. Intimidating practices are commonly used by the management in this industry against trade union organising. Labour organising in this sector is focussed particularly on FOA.

Labour use in this industry is becoming informalised punctuating with the seasonality of the production. Informalising employment through contractual labour and temporary labour also enables management to cut labour cost during slack season. In Batam, temporary labour may reach to 80 percent of the local workforce and they are not organised. Informalisation also allows management to intimidate and dismiss workers during trade union and workers’ struggles. Despite the fact the Indonesia labour law mandates regularisation of employment after a maximum of three year’s contractualisation, it is not implemented under the high pressure of unemployment. (Compared to the laws in the Philippines, the management can hire one as informal worker for 6 months only after which the employment should be changed to regular one).  

Workers are definitely threatened by occupational safety and health (OSH) problems and yet they are chronic such as noise hazards and chemical poisoning and therefore difficult for either individual workers or the trade union to identify or conscientise about. The industry is also prone to polluting the environment such as mercury poisoning in the factory neighbourhood and that directly harms the export due to prohibitive regulations in the US and the EU. Labour organisations are playing a passive monitoring role in this and have not yet integrated the environmental aspect with labour organising on the OSH aspect or with the consumer campaign in the west.

Labour Organising

Efforts of labour organising in the electronics sector are identified at Chikarang, Bekasi where there is a forum founded by three community organisations and two other organisations (name need to be identified) that advocate for labour rights. Yet the organising is confronted with the problem of the weak and rights-only struggle of workers and intimidation from management. It is common to find passivity amongst workers that are willing to fight only for the minimal rights under the labour law and even worse, a general dependence on the official unions for protection. Yet the biggest official trade union, the SBSI is controlled by the management and that further reinforces a sense of futility and distrust about trade unions amongst the workers.

In the case of CELEVIT in Bandung, the company is in serious violation of the labour law with systematic contractual employment for 7 years long. The contractual workers do not have labour contract and are entitled to only 1-month paid maternity leave against the legal entitlement to 3 years. They are flexibilised and expected to be ready for duty on 24-hour basis upon management arrangement. Worker resistance is often met with intimidation from the management including using mafia.

The Indonesian Metal Union (FSPMI) covers the electronics, automotive, aerospace, metal and lately the shipbuilding sectors. FSPMI has branch offices in Beksai, Kawarang and Surabaya etc. The affiliated unions include unions at Toshiba, Panasonic, Sanyo, Sony, Suzuki, Mazda and Opel. FSPMI adopts the two strategies of organising mass campaigns on basic labour rights and strengthening trade union education that aims at promoting trade unionism. Workers’ education is conducted in small groups or in the workers’ communities focussing on trade union rights. Where possible, FSPMI supports workers to establish trade unions (in case of more than 10 people) following the trade union law and negotiate collective bargaining agreement (CBA) particularly on wage issues with management. The legal approaches are supported with mass worker actions whenever needed.

The experience of Chang-hong is an example of the combined organising at the workplace and the community mobilising informal workers through collective strike actions against irregularisation of labour. On this, OBSI agreed and emphasised the importance of home visits and building human relations with workers at both levels.

The Organising in the Philippines

The electronics industry in the Philippines is found in Luzon Island the most concentrated part of which lies in the southern Tagalog area where most of the export processing zones (EPZs) are located. There are five EPZs found in 1990s in southern Tagalog namely Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon. The investment in the electronics sector is largely foreign direct investment (FDI) driven and the size of the domestic industry is small. The government put up favourable investment policies to attract TNCs to the region such as renewable 4-year tax holiday and tax exemption for 8 years after which the companies have to pay 5 percent of gross income in an one-for-all tax package. In anticipation of the expansion of the electronics industry under globalisation, the Filipino government is attempting to model Laguna as the silicon-valley and Detroit of the Philippines.

There is an estimated of 400,000 electronics workers in the country although the actual figure is not sure. Most of the electronics workers are young and un-married women between 17 and 25 years old who are believed to be docile and easy to manage. Moreover about 80 percent of the workforce is contractual or temporary labour.

Labour contractualisation is related to the sub-contracting production system of the industry. TNCs (such as Philips) sub-contracts particular process (such as soldering) in the PCB production to domestic Filipino companies of which 28 percent are sub-contracting production facilities. Sub-contracting is taking place increasingly in small workshops where the pay and working conditions and OSH hazards are more imminent. Workers employed in these workshops in the local community are paid on very low piece rate such as 20 pesos for soldering 20 panels under quota per day.

The most difficult problem confronting labour organising is the massive use of informal workers who are not allowed by law to join the trade unions. The other 20 percent of the regular workers however are faced with the oppression of freedom of association and freedom of collective bargaining which is exercised by both the government and the management in the EPZs. The example of Nestle is the most violent one. Workers’ organising and trade union struggles are repressed and it becomes more violent under the no-union-no-strike policy of the EPZs. This politicises the struggles. Police and even armed forces are used to disperse workers in the case of the Japanese-owned Sun-Lite electronics company when workers were struggling against illegal termination.

Organising Experiences in the Philippines

Attempts for national struggle are made to organise an alliance of electronics workers in the Philippines. Support from independent and democratic trade union such as the KMU is needed. Workplace organising is merged with community organising based in the living areas of workers given the strong union-busting in the EPZs and fear amongst a mass of irregular workers for union organising. Alliances between these workers’ organising are built such as the SCW to cultivate a sense of belongingness and mutual support amongst them even though it is not in trade union structure. The workers’ alliances however play a role in trade union conscientising using issue-based discussion groups to foster workers’ support and encourage them to join the trade union when they become regular workers.

Working class organising as practised here emphasises the importance of collective labour struggles not depending on that of the worker leader. It is operating on two levels both in the industrial zones building from the shop floor and the living communities of workers. Direct labour oragnising is conducted around work related issues such as wages, working conditions and basic labour rights. Community-based organising parallels the former and departs from workers’ struggles for livelihood and community issues. A propaganda team operates in the community using different methods, particularly cultural means such as film showing to promote consciousness on social issues close to workers’ life such as price rise in petroleum etc. The organising is equal between regular and informal workers to make the former understand about the precariousness of their job and the importance of unity. Based on the local, provincial alliances and national alliances are built to support general campaigns and political organising targeting macro issues such as the Arroyo government, the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The organising methods used are based and termed on the intensity of the strategies. The Sweeping Organising departs from the work place taking on the most outrageous issues related to work in a particular company or in the sector amongst workers. The advantage of this is the intensity and provocation of strong reaction from workers while it also suffers from short-term support and lack of sustainability amongst workers. Solid Organising works on multi-levels and is built on human relations and networking across the boundary of factory and the community. The organisers emphasise the importance of listening to the grievances of workers and motivating them to articulate and form themselves into workers’ committees for collective support and actions to overcome the fear such as job insecurity during the organising process.

The multi-level organising requires the organisers to first of all define the target which could be a company or a particular trans-national brand company. The organisers should undertake research and analyse the situation of the target company(ies) from the basics such as rank and file data of the employees, company profile, company rules, regulations and management practices as well as the working conditions which would help the organisers to identify and prioritise the issues both on the shop floor and in the neighbourhood community. The organisers should be backed up with training support in various skills. Developing the class consciousness of the target workers is the most important and the organisers should be aware that both the regular and the informal workers should be targeted. Worker education that conscientises workers about the general harm particularly the divide and rule impact of informalisation brought to the whole working class should be at the core. The organisers should develop a curriculum of studies, document and liaise with the workers that attend the classes. The education classes therefore form the basis for building worker committees around concrete identified issues such as labour rights, human rights, OSH, women issues etc. The committees provide the platform to let workers articulate their views and mutually reinforce the consciousness for mobilising collective actions. Having arrived at this stage, the organisers and the workers should discuss and clarify the objectives of the mobilisation, decide the issue(s) and assess the impact of the concerted action which includes very importantly problems that would arise in the mobilising and the ways to address them. The actual action may take many forms from symbolic actions such as workers wearing black ribbons to work or launching noise barrage at the work place, to more militant ones such as strikes, depending on the consciousness level of the workers. Yet the struggles against informalisation at the work place should avoid reinforcing the division amongst workers by organising only the informal workers. The mobilisation should bridge the gap with the regular workers by involving them and particularly the already unionised workers. The actual job of mobilising should be at the centre of the organising not the leaders. In the case of the Auto Alliance and Sun-Lite, it was the workers that took up the actual mobilising.

CLIST Shares about Organising in the Thai Electronics Industry

The electronics industry is found in the northern Lumpoon industrial area and the eastern Rayong, Saunbury and Prayin area in the suburbanised vicinity of Bangkok where the legal minimum wage is lower. The minimum wage in northern Bangkok is 145 baht per day, 139 baht per day in the south and 181 baht in central Bangkok city.

Under the labour protection act, the minimum wage is determined on tripartism with representatives from the government, the employers and trade unions from 76 provinces to be renewed every year. The trade unions in Thailand are now demanding for a rise in the minimum wage to 233 baht per day.

The electronics workers found in these areas are divided into migrant workers originated from nearby rural areas, regular/permanent workers, and various kinds of irregular workers namely sub-contract workers meaning dispatch workers through in-company sub-contracting or labour dispatch agents; and lastly fixed-term contract workers. Although workers can organise into trade unions in the EPZs, such division creates disunity and fear of employment security amongst the workers which becomes a particularly strong obstacle to organising. Informalisation of labour has become a general and nation-wide phenomenon. Although the labour law regulates that informal employment should be regularised after a maximum of 4 months, the reality is always the opposite. Besides, there is no legal regulation on the dispatch companies and CLIST’s study finds strong affiliation between the government and the dispatch companies as about half of the dispatch companies studied is run by local government officials, labour ministry officers as well as military and police officers. Approximately only 20 percent of the national workforce is permanent workers, against 50 percent of sub-contractual (dispatch) workers and a further 20 percent of fixed-term contract workers (the other 5 percent is migrant workers).

Case of labour organising in Samsung Electro Mechanics (SEM) Union

Samsung Electro Mechanics Co. Ltd is a subsidiary manufacturing component parts. The company employs 3000 workers out of whom 800 are in-company subcontracted workers (hereby referred as dispatch workers). There do are workers that have direct labour relation with Samsung. The dispatch companies employ workers and receive commission from Samsung.

Production in SEM is divided into several sections such as TV parts manufacturing (Samsung), PCB manufacturing for cell phones (the Any-Call section) and parts manufacturing for digital cameras (MIR). Production in the Samsung TV section was sub-contracted to other companies owned by the former Korean managers of Samsung and the actual relocation will be taking place soon. These in-company sub-contracting companies become suppliers manufacturing TV parts for Samsung. Workers were transferred to the new sub-contracting companies as new employees.

There are three company unions at SEM: the Samsung Management Union (SMU), the Samsung Workers Union (SWU) and the Electro-Mechanics Union (WMU). SMU and SWU were registered in June 2005 but they have practically collapsed as they failed to organise general assembly within 120 days after registration as required in the trade union law. EMU, which is an industrial union, was registered later and its membership is open to workers from other electronics companies and unions.

In the negotiation of a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in a workplace that has no trade union in Thailand, the representatives must gather signatures from 15 percent of the whole workforce and the agreement is legally covering the whole regular workforce. In the process the representatives are protected by law from dismissal. Yet this is always violated by Samsung. Where trade union(s) is present at the workplace, the trade union must gather signatures from 20 percent of the whole workforce and once agreed, the CBA is mandatory and covers the whole workforce despite complaints from workers or the other trade unions present. In practice, the trade union organisers need an approval rate as high as 50-60 percent from workers to strike the agreement. In Samsung for example, the union had managed to get 1800 out of 2200 workers to sign on the CBA.

Organising Methods of ADTU

The ADTU organises workers for forming industrial and general trade unions. Shop floor trade union organising starts from building human relations and network amongst workers around issues and activities not necessarily related to work. The organisers emphasise the importance of ‘making friends’ with workers in the initial stage and organises social activities. Based on the social network, the work related issues come in through talks and discussions. This is a process of building worker consciousness by challenging them to analyse their own problems and finding reasons as well as solutions for them. Trade union consciousness comes at a later stage and usually takes more time to show workers that it is a way to solve the labour problems. To promote worker collectivism, the organisers should encourage workers to take small actions around identified issues that are achievable and feasible to take. When this phase of general labour consciousness is achieved, the ground for trade union organising is present and the organising focus lies around motivating workers to use the mandate of the trade union such as negotiating CBA with the management as a means to struggle for their rights. Organising at this stage centres around mobilising workers to prepare for CBA negotiation and it starts with mobilising them to recruit more fellow workers for support. This is done through more general and intensive education on trade unionism, practising democracy within the trade union and socialising the trade union amongst the workers. But the negotiation of the CBA at one workplace should not be isolated from the larger labour struggle at the regional and national level. Alliance building is important. It should be based on developing consciousness through general worker education on capitalism and globalisation and identifying common issues for larger scale collective actions such as trade union rights, national labour law and national minimum wage, ILO conventions, the impact of informalisation, gender issues, the WTO and free trade agreements (FTAs) etc. Through organising regional/national campaigns, rallies and demonstrations around these identified issues, the local struggles are developing into working class struggles. The tools for organising worker consciousness and actions include training, seminars, rallies, campaigns etc. At each stage of the organising, it is of prime importance that the organisers and workers analyse the problems and find solutions to them thoroughly, motivate collective actions to be taken, as well as assess the impact and evaluate the methods.

Given the broad picture of the organising efforts in the south-east Asian region that was outlined in the first day of the meeting, the focus was shifted to understanding the specifics of each of the organising experience that the network members have. A tool was developed to facilitate cross-sharing by role playing journalistic investigation. Four electronics companies were chosen and the organisers were interviewed by journalists role-played by organisers from other factories to dig out concrete issues and gaps in each other’s experiences.

Interviewing Maxim Organisers, the Philippines (Solidarity for Cavite Workers)

‘Can you tell something about the workers in general in Maxim? How are they recruited?’

‘Maxim is a company manufacturing semi-conductors. It has 2500 workers, 80 percent of them are female. Most of them graduated from college but not majoring in electronics related subjects. After receiving one to two weeks’ training, they go through a test and become apprentice. Those who fail twice would not be employed. After finishing the apprenticeship, they become contractual workers for 6 months and then regular workers which takes altogether 2 years.’

‘Are they skilled workers? Why does the management prefer employing college graduates to work in the production line?’

‘The technical knowledge is not so relevant than the language ability. That’s why the want college graduates. The skills are simple anyway. About 40 percent of the workers are highly skilled who are familiar with the process of production.’

‘What problems do the workers in Maxim have?’

‘They are liable to contract occupational disease for instance deterioration of eye sight for those who working in quality inspection in semi-conductor manufacturing.’

‘The production managers, the General Manager and the Vice Executive are all Americans. There are Filipino managers for instance in the personnel department and they deal with the trade union.’

‘How are the Maxim workers in the community?’

‘Most of the workers are originated from the rural and living in the neighbourhood community in Cavite. Back in 2000, the establishment of the industrial zone started to attract rural migrant workers. Only 20 percent of the workers were local residents and the other 80 percent were migrants from other provinces and region. They came and stayed in boarding houses near the factories. Then the community also changed. Vendors, 7-11, McDonald’s and bars moved in seeing the migrant workers as a consuming community. It was common to find workers earning 200 pesos a day and spending 500 pesos in the bar at night.’

‘Is there sexual harassment from the management?’

‘Indeed there are women workers having sexual relations with managerial staff. The relation is so unequal. If you refuse, you will be laid off.’

‘How long has the company been established? Does it enjoy any favourable policies from the government?’

‘The company was established in Cavite in 1995. It is exempted from property and income tax. But workers have to pay 20 percent of income for household tax. Maxim has one factory in the Philippines and another plant in Thailand.’

‘Is there a policy of no strike and no union allowed in the industrial zone?’

‘Yes. There is agreed policy on no union and no strike at the local and the national government and with the Philippines Economic Zone Authority called PEZA. For that purpose, the industrial zone also has a Cavite Industrial Peace Advisory Group. But the reality is we have special PEZA police inside the zone who will take immediate actions in case a strike breaks out. If the PEZA police fails to handle that, the national police force will come to help.’

‘Do you know whether workers in other companies are organising?’

‘Sure. I myself am also involved in the worker organising in garment factories.’

‘In your experience, is there any difference between organising garment and electronics workers even in the same zone?’

‘I think so. There are differences first of all in the qualification of workers. The garment workers are mostly high school graduates, some of them even haven’t attained high schools. Yet they are more responsive and ready to support worker actions. Electronics workers are a bit snobbish since most of them are college graduates. The worker sub-culture is therefore not the same for example electronics workers in general love pop music and music TVs and so on, therefore the tactics of our organisers need to be different. Secondly, the working conditions in the garment factories are less desirable while those in the electronics factories are higher if not fancier. Maxim workers are paid 300-350 pesos a day which is higher than the minimum wage of 247 pesos and about 17 percent higher than the garment workers. Therefore the electronics workers think themselves better people than the garment workers and tend to look down on garment workers. That sense of superiority is long-established back since the college days.’  

‘That’s true also in Indonesia. The electronics workers do not consider themselves workers. They have higher living standard than the garment workers. Yes, they are snobbish as well and act like they are to be served by the union.’

‘What about the working conditions in Maxim?’

‘Workers go to work in 3 shifts of 8 hours each. There is no day off on weekend not even in Christmas time.’

‘Is there big gap in salary amongst the workers?’

‘Yes, the apprentices receive only 75 percent of the minimum wage. The contractual workers are paid 247 pesos whereas the regular workers get 247-300 pesos. On average those who have worked more than a year receive 280-300 pesos per day.’

‘General wage increases through government regulations to raise the legal minimum wage. Maxim increases wages every year by 10-20 pesos according to performance. The company in general complies with the minimum wage and the management also delivers bonus equivalent to an extra monthly salary every year. But if you are regular workers, you will be given company shares and entitled to dividend sharing. The shares will be increased if you have longer terms of service and good performance. The regular workers are of course happy to see that the company has good business.  Other than these, the managers are given a lot of allowances such as housing, transportation allowance etc.’ ‘But in the EPZs, only a few big companies are giving shares to production line workers. Intel and Anlogue do that and they have high share prices. Yet these companies do not have trade union.’

‘Tell us about the worker organising committees and the worker associations.’

‘We formed workers’ organisations with Maxim workers in 2005. There are two workers committees on education and recruitment. Each committee has 25 contact persons in the factory and 5 volunteer workers coordinating. The committees organise workers into associations (before forming into trade unions) which consists of 100 members.

‘What is the worker composition of the association?’

‘Out of 100 members, 80 of them are men and 20 are women.’

‘How is the participation of woman workers? Do you think it is a problem?’

‘It seems that women are more afraid of losing jobs. We do not have woman organisers in these committees. Maybe that’s the problem’

‘We receive help is from SCW. We are not collecting fees from members since it is not well established yet.’

‘Do you have a plan to have a democratic structure in the committees?’

‘Yes once we are registered as a union. We are not trade union yet but worker associations.’

‘What do you think are the problems to your expansion?’

‘At the moment growth and expansion is inhibited. We are still in the stage of preparing for a trade union. Yet the local government is already alerted. The contact person who started organising was terminated last year.’

‘How does the management deal with the workers?’

‘The management organises parties, outings, discos and Christmas gatherings giving out gifts. They also provide transportation allowance and three meals a day to the workers.’

‘Would you talk more about the alliance (SCW) structure?’

‘The alliance is composed of individual workers, unions and workers organisations.

Workers organisations can be factory or community based. They have similar structure with the trade union. We collect 10 pesos a month from the members. We have a President, a General Secretary, 5 Executive Officers and 7 board members. For operation, we have a council of leaders and regular meetings with the members.’

‘Can you talk more about the organising experience in more details?’

‘Since Maxim was established, there have been three attempts to organise. In two of the occasions, the organising momentum came spontaneously from the workers and we reacted to it. We planned and deliberated the third organising attempt. Back in 2001 when there was mass mobilisation in Cavite, we were approached by one Maxim worker who later became our Maxim organiser. He approached us about how to organise. We kept contact with him but did not pay enough attention to the situation. The organising was not that mature and a number of workers were sacked. The contact organiser also disappeared and did not come back to us after the failure.’ (‘Was there any follow up on Maxim?’) ‘In 2002, there was another group of workers who came to us seeking legal advice since they were accused of stealing and got fired. It was short and finished when the management settled the case with individual workers.’

‘The third organising attempt which I was part of was started in 2003. I was doing both company and community based organising. It started with a worker from Maxim I met in the community who asked me a lot about his own company.’ (‘What motivated this person to come to you?’) ‘The workers were worried about relocation of the company. This particular person was a quality inspector and was afraid of losing the job and the company moving to China. He pulled in 3 other workers. Starting from there, we met with more workers, talked to them and facilitated them to identify the good things and bad things about working in Maxim and the things around which we could organise workers. We also talked about democracy and the objectives of the association.’

‘The management somehow knew about the organising probably through some of our contract workers. The local government then held seminars to Maxim management (it was paid seminar and the Maxim management were paying 45000 pesos for that to the government) teaching them skills to spot and collapse trade union organising. For instance they told management to watch out for labour organisers from the outlook such as people always wearing base ball caps and carrying backpack, and you know things like that… (I guess I have to change my outlook now.) The company used these tactics to identify the organisers and fire them. Our contact person was terminated but refused to accept the payment offers made by the management. The case is now in the court. The mood has been low since the failure.’

‘We relied too heavily on one person…also the conditions in the company were not ripe yet for organising… it should be consolidated rather than expanding at that time. The entrance point of the organising was job security. Yet the workers were not convinced enough to organise themselves unless they were sure that the company was closing down. Personally as an organiser, I did not focus myself enough on this company which affected the influence we had on the mentality of the workers. When the organising was picking up in the beginning, we just let it go on its own. When it dropped to the low, we should have reacted more swiftly and consolidated it. But we are not that many people and we are organising other companies at the same time.’ ‘The training for the leading organisers in the factory is also important. The workers were relying too much on external organisers. We should have given immediate training when we secured the contact persons so that they could develop second line leadership and peer training amongst themselves.’

‘When you educate workers in the electronics factory, do you have any particular training module?’

‘There is adjustment in the training module for the electronics workers based on the survey we had done on this sector. We cannot just use the general training manual or organising guidelines for all industries. In different companies there are particular issues around which we can utilise for mobilisation for example OSH or canteen. Social investigations need to be done everyday.’

‘Do you have any documentation system during the course of particular organising experience?’

‘We have regular updating from the organisers in Maxim. Just that. They informed us about the latest situation regularly.’

Finding Out about the case of PT Chang-hong (by Whom?)

‘Shall we start with introducing the company?’

‘PT Chang-hong is located in Tangerang, the Columbus zone and was established in 1988. The investor is a mainland Chinese who registered the company under Kuncoro which is a one-man company. The company manufactures air-conditioners and TVs under the own brand Chang-hong. There are 250 employees. Only 10 of them who are managerial staff are regular employees. All the production line workers are irregular. The irregular workers signed labour contract directly with the company.

‘It was triggered by a worker strike in the company demanding regular labour contract in May 2005. The strike was successful and the irregular workers who had worked for more than two years would be regularised. They would be receiving the minimum wage of USD70 a month.’

‘Let’s understand more about the worker composition and the working conditions in Chang-hong.’

‘The workers are graduates from vocational schools some are graduates in engineering. They come from different regions such as Java, Sunder and Sumatra. Half of them are male and the other half female. They are working in different production sections such as quality control, machinery and packaging. They go to work from 07:00 – 15:00 and for 6 days a week.’ ‘There were many labour violations on the shop floor but the workers did not realise them as problems not until after the strike. For example they were not aware that the employer collected money from workers for social insurance but actually did not insure them. There were also occupational accidents such as electric shocks but the employer never cared. The organising of the workers was built from the social relations established amongst the workers as they were eating, having sports and attending religious activities together.’

‘What is your role in organising this company?’

‘After the success of the strike, the workers are now preparing a worker congress for registering a trade union. They are careful and focus their organising activities outside the company since they have not secured trade union recognition yet. We assist them with regular trade union education undertaken in the community every two months.’

‘We are assisting workers’ groups from different companies so we involve the Chang-hong workers in the labour alliances. We organise trainings to them on labour contract, house insurance and OSH and how to turn them for organising purposes.’ 

‘How is the worker group in Chang-hong structured at the moment?’

‘The worker group has 10 shop stewards. The group consists of a chair person, a general coordinator, and other coordinators on education, organising and welfare. They have set up a negotiation team to deal with the company. They are developing membership amongst the workers and on that the worker group has two recruitment criteria. A member should be one who has taken part in the worker education sessions and has participated in the mass actions. Dues are collected from the members directly.’

‘What do you think are the obstacles in the organising?’

‘The main obstacle is the lack of awareness of workers. Very few workers are involved in the union education.’

What about Organising Samsung Electro-Mechanics in Thailand? *From whom?

‘Will you give us some basic information about the company first.’

‘The SEM in Thailand is a subsidiary of Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. in Korea. SEM Thailand was established in 1993 with initial investment of 424 million baht. Now the company assets have swelled to 4000million baht. It was employing 3000 workers in the beginning. SEM Thailand had in-company sub-contracting and was divided into different sections. The Samsung-owned section is manufacturing PCBs and employs 1600 workers, 500 of them are dispatch workers. The MIR and the Any-call division are manufacturing FBT (flyback transformers). MIR employs 1100 workers, 300 are dispatched. The Any-call section employs 400 workers, 50 of them are dispatch workers. The majority of the workers are female and they work as operators. The rest of the male workers are technicians, maintenance and warehouse workers etc. The production line workers have generally attained high school from grade 9 to 12. About 80 percent of the production of SEM Thailand is for export.’

‘Are there any major problems on the shop floor?’

‘The regular and irregular workers are very different. Regular workers are paid 185 baht a day but the dispatch workers receive only 165 baht. The dispatch workers also wear Samsung uniform but their worker ID is different. They are not Samsung workers. But in general, workers work on 2 shifts: from 7:30 to 16:30; and from 19:00 to 04:00. They have 2 rest days per week. There is no forced overtime work. The management sets the daily production quotas and it varies according to the size of the orders. A lot of chemicals are used in the production process and OSH is a concern.’

‘By 2005, there were two in-plant trade unions. One of them was formed by the management, the other formed by workers. But both were paper unions and did not have support from workers to hold general assembly. The third union was formed in August 2005 when the company announced earlier in the year that it would re-structure and establish a new company just in a stone’s throw within the same factory complex. The management started asking workers to sign on papers to accept the transfer to the new company without compensation. The workers knew it was wrong and against their interests. They immediately gathered signatures amongst themselves and submitted filing for CBA. The filing and negotiation would take 3 years to accomplish.’

‘What is the size of the unionised workers? And what are the problems in organising?’

‘In the Samsung section, there are 50 unionised members which is the same for MIR. In Any-call, there are 300 workers unionised. There are welfare and OSH committees established in all the 3 companies.’ ‘We anticipate lots of problems after the formation of the new company and the separation from Samsung.’

Investigating Matsushita Panasonic-Indonesia

Doan, SPMI

‘I am the organiser in Matsushita Panasonic in Bekasi. The company was established in 1991 and I have been working there since 1992. Our union is affiliated with SPMI, the Indonesian Metal Workers Union. Matsushita Panasonic has 12 factories in Indonesia. Panasonic Bekasi has 7,000 workers.’

‘Can you explain the production in the company and the working conditions there?’

‘Panasonic Bekasi is divided into 6 sections: finishing, mechanics, cylinder, molding, painting and processing. At present about 75 percent of the workers are female in the production and assembling section. The other 25 percent is male workers manufacturing VCR, VCD, DVD and drivers etc. Before 1995, new workers were recruited and worked for 3 months as trainees. After that they became regular employees. But the company introduced two employment systems dividing regular and irregular workers which include contract workers and trainees. From 2000 on, the company has been keeping the size of the contract workers to 60 percent and only 40 percent of the workforce has regular employment.’

‘How much are the workers paid and how long are they working?’

‘The trainees receive Rps 710,000 (US$ 71) every month. The regular workers receive much higher salary from Rps 900,000 to Rps 100,0000 ie around US$ 100. Besides they have US$ 1 per day as transportation subsidy.’ ‘The working hours are regular. We work 8 hours a day, 40 hours a week, and 5 days a week. If we work on Saturday, we have double rate as overtime compensation.’

‘Let’s talk about the organising activities in the company.’

‘We started organising in 1992 and for two years we were having constant fight with the management around issues such as pension, bonus, transportation, wages, health benefits, number of holidays and holiday benefits. We organised workers to form a trade union by starting meetings with them during which we distributed survey forms asking them about problems and proposals related to improving the working conditions, benefits and social security. We also did this kind of investigation and distributed the survey forms in the company buses on the way to and from work. Besides, we put up letter box outside the factory gate and gather suggestions from the workers. Based on these suggestions and interaction with the workers, the union was formed in 1994. We are the only union in the factory.’

* The number refers to the number of orgainsers

‘Are there any important event in the course of the organising?’

‘Yes, after the trade union was formed, we filed for CBA negotiation in 1996.That took us 5 months and in the meantime, 7 union officers were terminated. But we got support from the Panasonic union in Japan and support from SPMI. They assisted by filing the case with the government. We won the case and the fired officers were reinstated.’ ‘We were able also to negotiate the CBA with the management. The CBA includes the delivery of transportation subsidy of Rps 10, 000 (US$1) per day for all workers, paid holidays and medical benefits equivalent to 3 months’ wages.’

‘Is there any lesson learned from the organising experience?’

‘We have learned a number of tactics. We started negotiation with the Japanese management and not pushing ourselves to strike action in the beginning. In case of a deadlock in the negotiation, we went to the government for intervention first. If that failed, we organised worker strike. But we have to secure support from outside.’

‘What is the relation of the union now with the management?’

‘Our members cover all production line workers including contract workers and except the managerial staff. The management is now engaging with the union especially in conducting education for workers. This is quite different from the beginning when we did not have the trade union yet and had conflicts with the management intensely for 2 whole years.’

The role-play journalist session was both interesting and effective in motivating the grass-root organisers to talk. The methodology continued with more critical investigation into the reflections and learnings drawn from each of the cases of organising which in turn, also allowed the other participants and organisers to give suggestions and advices to each case.

Reflections the organisers of Maxim, the Philippines

Develop more understanding of the grass-root organisers

The organising should start with understanding the constraints and problems faced by the grass-root organisers in the company. The particularities of the electronics workers and being an organiser in the electronics industry should be identified to keep us abreast of the needs and variable factors in the course of the organising.

Team work organising and not fighting alone!

The grass-root organisers should work as a team in the company. There must be at least three of them not necessarily working as full time organisers for one company.

Gender should not be missed

Gender issues and gender balance in the grass-root organisers must be maintained since the majority of the electronics workers are women.

What the grass-root organisers should know…

First of all, despite the relatively higher education background of the electronics workers, they do not have high awareness of the labour rights issues and not necessarily highly educated. The grass-root organisers must be equipped with good knowledge about the labour law, the constitution and international labour conventions; as well as the labour rights and OSH issues at the workplace and in general so that they can face up to the challenges of the management and the fellow workers. They should also have general knowledge and analysis about the social political issues. We should not give the image that we know only about labour law and nothing else.

The qualities of the organisers

The grass-root organisers should have proactive character, articulation ability, readiness to learn, good personal image, and should be respectable and acceptable by workers to show that they are different from the demonised cliché stereotyped by the government and the management. They should build confidence amongst workers that being organisers they are still diligent and competitive workers. A woman organiser should be sensitive to the gender issues. They should be ready to talk and listen to the other woman workers, to articulate and relate issues such as family, religion etc together. All organisers should be creative.

Playing multiple roles

The grass-root organisers should be ready to act as educator and counsellor to workers. They should be ready to respond to the family issues of the workers. The organisers are also paralegals. For the sake of consolidating the experiences, they should keep good documentation and pass on the knowledge. Lastly, the organisers should link between local/regional/international and between trade unions and other social organisations.

Catch phrase:

‘You don’t have to turn yourself into this super organiser now. Our struggle will lead us close to that.’ ‘Organising is everybody’s job!’

Advices to Maxim Organisers

The organisers have the ability to organise but it got stuck at the moment. They understand that their way of organising focuses too much on one person and the momentum will be lost if the person is fired or leaves.

Strength of the Maxim organisers in community organising

Their strength lies in the community work building relations through personal friendships, relatives and making use of the occasions of socialising such as church activities etc; and facilitating workers to articulate issues in the community such as demolition and eviction of residents etc. This should be further enhanced and seek greater alliance building with other organisations such as the environmental organisations to address the social problems and from there politicising the issues as well as the members of the enlarged alliance.

Improving organising at the work place

Relying on one grass-root organiser is not enough meaning the person may be able to organise in a particular production section and have limited knowledge about the specific problems confined to that section only. Better understanding about the particular problems in all other sections is needed such as the chemical poisoning hazards in the processing section, the ergonomics problems in the packaging section. Besides, it is better to have woman organisers in sections where there is high concentration of female workers so as to address the specific gender related issues. There should be more organisers from different sections and inter-relate the specific issues with the fundamental ones. A platform such as newsletter publication should be established to allow collective understanding and approaches to problems.

Improving the training materials

The training materials should be sector specific and make use of different medium to attract and sustain the interests of the workers. The training manual for the grass-root organisers should include frequently-asked questions to equip them in face of challenges from the management and government propaganda.

Giving Advices on the Chang-hong Case

The next stage of the Chang-hong organising is registering the trade union with the local labour ministry and gaining official recognition for the trade union and the negotiation of CBA.

Strengthen Solidarity in the Industrial Zone

In the process of seeking recognition, the Chang-hong organisers and workersshould start building solidarity within and in the industrial zone and not in isolation. This would enhance solidarity among the CH workers and the organisers. Since 2002, an alliance committee has been set up campaigning on contractual labour. KASBI is organising the community in 14 industrial zones. These efforts should be strengthened through persistent worker education and organiser training.

Advices to SEM Thailand organisers

Identification of the obstacles/entrance points for organising

Right now the organising is faced with the problem of division amongst workers. The management is using three tactics to achieve that: (1) using overtime to divide workers; (2) in-company sub-contracting; (3) weak base of the union having only 50 members each in the Samsung section and the MIR section.

Overcoming worker division

It is easy for workers to misunderstand overtime work for earning higher income and thus play into the hands of the management. They should be educated about the nature of the overtime issue and understand the tactics played by the management. The union should give informal education on that to all workers and not only members.

Consolidating the worker foundation

The union was formed on the basis of workers’ strong reaction to work issues that spontaneously arose in the beginning. The union must strengthen that with all workers on trade union democracy. The union officers themselves must also learn and exercise democratic operation. Besides, the union was organised with the assistance from the national centre ADTU??. The limits of lack of grass-root capacity and alliances should be overcome by building solidarity with workers from other factories and other sectors under the same umbrella.

Organising the dispatch workers

The union should investigate the production relation and the differences in working conditions between Samsung and the in-company subcontractors. This can be started with the existing members in Samsung and MIR though they are small in number. Through them the link between workers from the two sections should be built.

How to improve the organising of the Panasonic union in Indonesia?

There are still problems…. Workers and even union members are still afraid of participating in the union. The members are scared to take responsibility or official positions in the union.

Strengthening the Support of the Union to Members

Although the union is recognised and is on less confrontational relation with the management, it should consolidate its base amongst workers, particularly building strength in terms of collecting a larger strike fund vis-à-vis management tactics in times of CBA negotiation.

Overcoming the Fear of Woman Participation

The gender imbalance between the male union officers and the female workers is serious. The union needs to assist women workers/organisers through gender education and organising the families to overcome the problem of paternalism as they are not supported by their husbands to stay active in the union after they get married.

Summary of General Advices to Improve Organising

The participants also share advices in general for enhancing grass-root organising based on their own experiences.

SHEKHAR from CEC points out the importance of regular meetings/trainings for conscientisation of workers and the organisers and the importance of delegation of responsibility. Authority and power should not be centred on the chair person only. There should be de-centralisation and democracy in sharing the responsibilities and power amongst officers, committees and members in the day-to-day management of the union/worker group. Besides, to effect moral appeal amongst workers, the organisers should bear some fundamental qualities such as honesty, readiness to put the majority’s interests first, as well as readiness to live out organising not only at the work place but in other social and personal aspects of life.

DOAN from SPMI emphasises the point of sustainability. He addresses the problem both on the level of succession of people and succession of the system. Organising should keep incubating new generation leadership. It is very critical that the union does not lose their edge and develop a false sense of stability in ‘peaceful’ times. There is always a need to develop new generations to prepare for changes on the one hand; and on the other hand, a union should have well-founded worker and union education to withstand changes in the leadership.

MARLON from CWELD on the other hand reiterates the importance of mass education which is the ground to continuously support workers and the organisers to pursue labour struggles. It is the platform for mutual motivation and a tool to conscientise workers to understand the fundamental issues behind the surface. For instance workers might not understand why they should contribute to the strike fund and the women workers might be ready to submit to paternalism and quit the union. Mass education should motivate and prepare workers to take up the challenge and participate. Exchange between members with other organisers is also an effective tool to share practical experiences.

Besides, other suggestions on improving and supporting organising from different aspects are brainstormed. We recognise that the electronics sector is poorly organised and yet there are few organisers and few success so far.

Gender organising

The difficulty and lack of woman participation and woman leadership is a problem generally identified in all the cases. The need to integrate gender into organising is recognised as the electronics industry has a majority of female employees and the paternalistic social environment is inhibiting women participation. Social organising that aims at the family not only workers at the workplace should be explored and practised more.

Research support

In identifying obstacles to organising workers in the electronics sector, job security and capital relocation are the most concerned problems amongst workers and these issues create fear against workers’ participation. The lack of job security in close relation with massive contractualisation and informalisation is related specifically to the production process, the structure and changes in the supply chain, as well as the shortened product cycle particular to the industry. Research into the production system and its relation to the particular changes in the labour relation in the electronics industry is not enough to support the organisers in dealing with these problems on the ground. In some cases, the organisers and even the union does not have enough understanding on the company and the underlying reasons behind capital competition in the industry. This reinforces the importance of research as back up to the knowledge and strategising the approaches of the organisers. In relation to that, developing training manuals to counter the myth of capital relocation specific to the industry is needed.

Strategising for High Impact

Improved strategising based on better understanding through research on the nature and relationships of the supply chain in this industry would help the organisers to identify the entrance point, both in terms of issues and strategic sector that creates impact. In some cases, starting organising at the assembling section at the workplace or the assembling supplier of the target company has proved successful.

Summary of Collaborative Network Activities

The meeting agreed that a number of collaborated activities could be developed within this network of electronics organisers. Good communication is first and foremost needed to maintain the organiser network. Without disputing the prime importance of strengthened labour education, we also realised that it should be backed by focused and quality research on the supply chain and globalisation of the industry. The particularities of the labour relation in the electronics sector of course should also be researched deeper, yet that should start and go hand-in-hand with more systematic documentation of the experiences, reflections and skills explored in past cases of organising that we also possess. The concrete suggestion for that is the development of a training manualcompiled on the basis of research results on the macro and grass-root cases that could serve the purpose of overcoming the fear of capital relocation and the myth about the labour practices amongst the electronics workers. Resource sharing amongst the organiser network should be furthered such as the development of audio-visual campaign and organising materials. This exchange meeting succeeds in providing a good platform for the organisers to know and challenge each other with new perspectives to evaluate past experiences and re-adjust future strategies. Further exchanges on more specific topic should be organised and the target should be worker activists.  

NAME	ORGANISATION	ADDRESS AND EMAIL
Dede	Celebit, plant level union, Bandung West Java, Indonesia (Affiliated to KASBI—Congress of Indonesian Unions Alliance)	Rancaekek, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia Email: via kp_kasbi@yahoo.com
Hikmawati	Serikat Buruh Hitech Indonesia (SBHI), Bogor, Indonesia, (Affiliated to KASBI—Congress of Indonesian Unions Alliance)	Bogor, West Java, Indonesia Email via: kp_kasbi@yahoo.com
Yanti	Serikat Buruh Hitech Indonesia (SBHI), Bogor, Indonesia, (Affiliated to KASBI—Congress of Indonesian Unions Alliance)	Bogor, West Java, Indonesia Email via: kp_kasbi@yahoo.com
Manny Asuncion	Solidarity of Cavite Workers (SCW) Philippines	Bahay Manggana, Indian Mango St. Manggahan cpd, Sapa I, 416 Rosario, Cavite, Philippines wacphilippines@yahoo.com.ph
Cecilia Tuico	Workers Assistance Center, Philippines	Bahay Manggana, Indian Mango St. Manggahan cpd, Sapa I, 416 Rosario, Cavite, Philippines wacphilippines@yahoo.com.ph
Daniel Mojika	Workers Assistance Center, Philippines	Bahay Manggana, Indian Mango St. Manggahan cpd, Sapa I, 416 Rosario, Cavite, Philippines wacphilippines@yahoo.com.ph
Marlon Torres	Center for Workers Education and Leadership Development	cweld_mailbox@yahoo.com marlon_torres73@yahoo.com
Noel Alemania	LABAN KABUHAYAN (Struggle for Livelihood) National Coalition for the Protection of Workers Rights-ST)	laban_kabuyahan@yahoo.com alemania_noel@yahoo.com
Mongkol Somkrabuan (Deng)	Alliance of Democratic Trade Union (ADTU), Thailand	clist@loxinfo.co.th clist2@loxinfo.co.th
Premijai jaikla (Yong)	Thai Labour Campign, Thailand	yong@thailabour.org
Suriya Chiangma	Electonic and Mechanic Labour Union	Email via: yong@thailabour.org
David Ferianto	Electronic Union (SPMI—Indonesian Metal Workers’ Union), Bekasi, Indonesia	speefspmi@yahoo.com
Obon Tabroni	Electronic Union (SPMI—Indonesian Metal Workers’ Union), Bekasi, Indonesia	obontabroni@yahoo.com
Doan Herison	Electronic Union (SPMI—Indonesian Metal Workers’ Union), Bekasi, Indonesia	speefspmi@yahoo.com
Roni Febrianto	Panasonic Union, (SPMI—Indonesian Metal Workers’ Union), Bekasi, Indonesia	roni_febrianto@yahoo.com
Amie	KAB (Community for Labour Advocacy), Bekasi, Indonesia	amie_jilbab@yahoo.com
Nanik	OBSI (Labour Union of Sintertech Indonesia)	Cikarang, Bekasi, Indonesia Email via: amie_jilbab@yahoo.com
K Shan	Labour Resource Centre (LRC), Malaysia	k_shan08@yahoo.com
Dae-oup Chang	Asia Monitor Resource Center, Hong Kong	chang@amrc.org.hk
Fahmi	Sedane Institute for Labour Information (LIPS), Bogor, Indonesia	lips@lips.or.id fahmi@lips.or.id
Mundo	KASBI (Congress of Indonesian Unions Alliance)	redmundo99@yahoo.com
Sastro	KASBI (Congress of Indonesian Unions Alliance)	kp_kasbi@yahoo.com
Shekhar Lal Das	Center for Education and Communication (CEC), India	shekhar@labourfile.org
Fuad	YAWAS (Wahyu Sosial Foundation), Semarang, Central Java, Indonesia	y_yawas@yahoo.com
Kaneko Fumio	Yokohama Action Research Centre, Japan	kaneko@yokohama-cu.ac.jp
Somyot Pruksakasemsuk	CLIST, Thailand	clist@loxinfo.co.th
Dennis Arnold	Thai Labour Campaign, Thailand	arnold.dennis@gmail.com
Krishna Shekhar Lal Das	Centre for Education and Communication, India	shekhar@labourfile.org