28-31 March, 2005

YMCA International House, Hong Kong

The electronics industry is one of the most globalised industries in the world. Like other manufacturing industries found in the export processing zones in the Asian region, the electronics industry is an increasingly important source of foreign direct investment (FDI) and employment. The production system of the electronics industry is structured by the ownership of high-intensity capital and technology on the one hand, and accessibility to a mass of de-skilled manufacturing labour on the other. Such characteristics account for the need of the electronics industry to control labour by adopting capital strategies that subject labour under division through subtle pacification management practices, aggravated infromalisation and blunt oppression. Although the historical track record and the self-propagated image of its being a union-free industry does not result in total crushing of all attempts of labour and trade union organising, it is true that the electronics industry has been suffering from low unionising rate and weakly demonstrated working class solidarity. The ability of North Asian capital from Japan, Korea and Taiwan to compete with western capital in the electronics industry is certainly related to the successful application of such strategies to contain labour resistance in the home country back from the fifties to the eighties, and in the developing countries in the nineties. Such historical development of the electronics industry cast doubts to the real effectiveness of monitoring mechanisms such as the consumer campaign, that address the market significance of capital more than achieving real-term strengthening of labour. The ATNC Monitoring Network which aims at supporting labour organising in the region recognises therefore the importance and urgency of finding real impactful means of organising through de-mystifying the self-image of the electronics industry and building solidarity between the capital exporting and capital importing countries in the region. This workshop was organised to bring the network members together as the first attempt to identify the subject of organising in the electronics industry in the region and the appropriate supportive mechanism for that.

The workshop was organised by the ATNC network in collaboration with its member in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee in April 2005 in Hong Kong. 15 participants from our member organisations, the Asia Monitor Resource Centre, the Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee, Ching-Jen Labour Health and Safety Centre, Yokohama Action Research Center, Workers Assistance Center, Thai Labour Campaign, CLIST, LIPS, CEC and Committee for Asian Women participated. Some of us have direct organising in the sector, others have conducted and the capacity to conduct research. We aimed to:

ü      Build a network of information and support amongst labour organisations and trade unions around campaigning and organising the electronics sector in Asia

ü      Map the labour conditions and industrial relations in the electronics sector in Asia

ü      Learn and share experiences on campaigning and organising electronics workers in Asia and by doing so consolidate our works on electronics sector

ü      Produce a collective work plan, the result of which provide labour organisations and trade unions with a map on the sector, investment, major investors etc; basic info about the industry in Asia; major problems, major trade unions and organisations, etc.

ü      In the three-day discussion, we managed to bring together a general picture of the electronics industry in the region, as well as case presentations on the Asian electronics brand conglomerates and component manufacturing companies in the region. We identified the common characteristics and uniqueness of the industry particularly in regard to organising and strategies. We concluded by reiterating organising as our primary goal and a follow up plan to start the pursuit.  

Understanding the Electronics Industry in Asia

The meeting started with an overall mapping of the electronics industry in the Asian region. We started with two questions ‘what do we know about the electronics industry? And what do we not know about the electronics industry?’ The mapping was led by a presentation given by Stephen Frost from CSR Asia followed with supplementary information given by the participants. Rather than finishing with a very comprehensive picture of the electronics industry, we were able to identify a number of issues and focal points for further discussion.

Stephen Frost’s presentation throws open a number of major research questions regarding the electronics sector in relation to civil campaigning. Stephen starts with asking ‘what is the electronics industry?’ The electronics industry is most commonly broken down into 7 sectors although different countries have different categorisation. They are:

1.      Consumer electronics

2.      Home appliances

3.      Data processing

4.      Auto industry

5.      Telecommunications

6.      Aerospace – civil aviation and military and space

7.      Industrial electronics

There is quite remarkable concentration of particular sectors in particular countries. China is hosting 13 to 16 percent of the global electronics production most of which are consumer electronics goods and component parts. The majority of the Chinese production is for export and the rest goes to the local market. Regarding FDI from Asian capital in China on the electronics industry, Japan and Taiwan are well-distinguished sources particularly in the communication and data processing sector.

Singapore is another important electronics hub in the region making up 8 percent of global production. Almost half of the manufacturing in Singapore is in electronics and the country has a strong global share in manufacturing hard disc drives. Korea on the other hand shares 5 percent of global production. Yet the manufacturing has reached to higher end products such as semiconductors and telecommunications productions. Whereas Taiwan is the world’s largest manufacturing country of notebook computers and peripheral products such as scanners, keyboards, mouse and monitors. These are capital exporting countries that also has strong manufacturing base at home.

In capital importing countries such as, the Philippines, Indonesia and Thailand, the industry shows a high concentration of foreign investment in parts and components manufacturing. The Philippines has a majority of investment ie 87 percent of the electronics production, in component parts and computer manufacturing. The industry is almost dominated by foreign investment. Thailand is similar although her strength lies in hard disc drive manufacturing. India has strong focus on consumer electronics such as TV manufacturing accounting for about 22 percent of the Indian consumer electronics production. For one thing such as the case in Indonesia, although the electronics production is small in the global (1 percent), it is very important for the country in terms of revenue and promoting export.

In regard to individual capital, Stephen points out the unique structure of the global production chain of the electronics industry which, unlike others such as garment, makes campaigning difficult. He takes the example of computer manufacturing. The industry is dominated by giant players that controlled the largest profit margin through technology configuration. The manufacturing is run by logistics companies which are also manufacturers themselves such as Flextronics and Celestica. These companies directly invest heavily in the Asian region. The sourcing controlled by them over suppliers whose number is many times more than the manufacturing of garments makes public campaigning difficult if it is targeting well-known and identifiable individual brand companies. It is difficult to trace a product and the production chain. The US computer company such as HP gives Flextronics the specifications for the printer and the latter handles everything from sourcing, moulding, cartridges, assembly and packaging and shipping the production to the retailing outlets of HP. HP focuses on research and development (R&D) and marketing. The invisibility of the actual manufacturer(s) ie Flextronics and the many component suppliers behind Flextronics, who is the direct employer to electronics workers in the region, makes the current campaign model which holds onto only the identifiable brand company problematic. On the other hand, the target-brand strategy faces another challenge given the trend of strategic-alliance building amongst the electronics brand companies in reaction to intensified competition. A single electronics product may bear more than one brand. These makes the question of who actually manufactures the product and be responsible more and more complicated.

Lastly, the most distinguished characteristics regarding the working conditions in the electronics industry is the occupational safety and health hazards at the workplace. It might be identified as an effective area for organising.

Discussion

Reaction to Stephen Frost’s presentation focused on a number of issues that were brought up, namely the question of categorisation and entrance point, the uniqueness of the electronics industry and the objectives of a campaign on it.

Categorisation and Entrance Point(s)

The participants agreed that it was very difficult to categorise the industry as different countries have different standards making statistics comparison less meaningful. Korea had different categories from the categories listed above. And one component can be used to manufacture different products under different categories. It is almost impossible to have clear definition. Yet the point of raising the categorisation question is to force ourselves to consider the borders in relation to what we wanted to do. Frustration arises if the question of categorising and tracing down the supply chain is asked only from the perspective of consumer campaign. Even the brand companies themselves may not necessarily know who and how many suppliers they have, therefore the strategy of targeting the brand companies to pressure the suppliers does not work effectively. Based on the objectives of supporting worker organising in the electronics sector, looking at the industry from bottom-up rather than from top-down the supply chain may serve our purposes more.

Comparing the model of organising in garment, auto and electronics industry

If the entrance point is not the consumers but electronics workers that are struggling, the next issue to address is how is organising electronics workers different and more difficult compared to that in other sectors. Participants suggested that we compare the possible campaign model in electronics with the garment and the auto industry. In the auto industry, the biggest companies/capital are playing minimal role in terms of submitting to consumer pressure which is completely different from the garment industry. It is hard to imagine a campaign appealing to consumers to boycott IBM would be successful and yet it is equally hard to expect the consumers to boycott the unknown company making the keyboards of IBM. This is the same as in the auto industry. It is also hard to see the brand companies in the auto industry would be, as it looks like so in the electronics industry too, so pressured by a consumer campaign to take the lead to improve the labour conditions of their global production network. Yet the worker organising experience of the auto industry should be of reference to the electronics organisers. The organising starts from and is usually strong at the assembler level. However, the disappointing side in the auto organising is that vertical integration of trade unionism has not been accomplished and it has been stopped for many years. Solidarity between auto workers in different factories and different countries belonging to the same company can be built but to a limited extent only. Despite that, the auto industry still has strong unions at the assembler level which cannot be compared to the electronics sector. On the contrary the unique human resources management (HRM) practices of the electronics companies work successfully in replacing or pre-empting trade union if not even the need to organise at all.

Where should organising in the electronics industry start?

If we ask this question from the point of view of strategic organising in the production process, some participants agreed that the organising should start at the assembler level. If we look at the question from the angle of strategic product organising, a high focus on the computer sector is demonstrated from the existing research efforts of the participating organisations. Some participants challenge that such a directing of the research activities might be a result of the campaign needs of the consumer campaign rather than based on the most urgent needs of the electronics workers. Strategic thinking on organising the Asian electronics workers is lacking and real examination into which level/sector in the electronics industry has the most active worker organising is missing. But we can start from looking into the existing organising efforts and strategies amongst the participating organisations and search for concrete entrance points.

The particularities of the electronics industry

In identifying the entrance points for organising, the characteristics of the electronics industry and the labour practices/ labour relations show both uniqueness (from other industries) as well as commonalities (amongst different Asian countries). There is stereotyping and certain pre-conceptions, held very often by the electronics workers about the industry and their employment. These stereotyped self-images are hindering factors to labour organising and therefore need to be demystified. The high vertical diversity of the electronics industry implies diversity in the characteristics of the workforce and variety in terms of the labour relations. Strong gender division is shown as the high-end part of the production in research and development and engineering is male dominated whereas the manufacturing is mostly done by women workers. Higher capital and technology intensity in the upper end of the production chain results in different labour relations and management practices such as dividend sharing, provision of skills training etc to provide the ideological and material basis for identification of same interests between the company and this sector of labour. The exercise of labour control in the high-end sector is more subtle and yet effective in creating division with workers in the manufacturing sector. The manufacturing, particularly at the sub-contracting level is organised into de-skilled jobs undertaken however by a workforce of relatively higher education level compared to other industries. This in turn results in relatively low working class consciousness in the electronics sector as workers in general develops a better-off self-image which works, if coincided with more subtle human resources management practices that aim to pacify worker discontent through offering slightly above-market remuneration and welfare, to decrease the propensity of the workers to take up industrial actions. In one sense therefore, it is true that the management of electronics companies use traditional union busting tactics similar to other industries such as dismissals, bribery of organisers, relocating or threaten to relocate investment etc. But the trend of generalised informalisation of labour particularly through in-company sub-contracting and using dispatch labour is particularly remarkable in the electronics industry. And the degree of determination to bust organising activities and keep the industry union-free is also particularly explicit.

Table of summary of the characteristics of the electronics industry and electronics workers

Characteristics of the Electronics Industry	Characteristics of Electronics Workers and Labour Relations
Vertical diversity in the products and the production system with various level of capital input	Vertical diversity in terms of labour conditions, labour relations and labour consciousness: High end sector – better conditions, more regular employment, low working class consciousness Low end sector – sweatshop conditions, informal and dispatch labour, higher level of labour resistance
Horizontal diversity in terms of geographical capital mobility (organised by logistics companies)	Precarious job and employment insecurity in relation to factory relocation
Intense competition amongst capital such as merger and acquisition	Problematic labour relations due to complicated investment relations. Generalised trend of informalisation of labour
Important source of FDI and employment to the growth of local economy	State supported union-busting policies in collaboration with trade associations and individual companies Sophisticated HRM Low unionising rate
Concentration in the EPZs	Particular anti-organising policies and police practices by government and EPZ authorities
Self-imaged booming industry	Sophisticated HRM practices to divide workers and undermine organising. Low working class consciousness
High degree of globalisation, capital mobility in terms of physical relocation and mergers/acquisitions	Division between regular and irregular workers. Sense of powerlessness.
	High concentration of women workers
Particular OSH problems	Low labour consciousness and union organising on OSH

Network members then gave general country presentation on the electronics industry in China, the Pilippines, Thailand, Indonesia, India, Japan, Korea and Taiwan.

Monina Wong, Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee, Hong Kong: Electronics industry in China

The Chinese government changed the Ministry of Electronics Industry to the Ministry of Information Industry which refers the industry to 4 categories of the information industry, home electronics, parts and components and ?. China lacked capital and core technology to fund the development of the electronics industry in the beginning of  the open door policy due to incomplete enterprise reform of the state-owned enterprises and political reasons (behind western governments) to export strategic core technology to China. Using FDI to make China the manufacturing of parts and components for trans-national companies and promoting export is the major means to overcome the limitations Despite the figures which all show that the Chinese electronics industry is growing in GDP and export value, China still does not possess core technology and relies a lot on import of semi-conductors and precision machinery. China is still largely a processing base for trans-national capital. The research conducted by HKCIC covers only the foreign invested computer manufacturing sector which highlights labour recruitment practices, sweatshop-like working conditions, particular OSH problems, labour management and labour relations, and the absence of trade union and worker representation on the shop floor. The last one is related more in the particular labour relation and trade union system in China first and foremost.

Kaneko Fumio, Yokohama Action Research Center, Japan: Japan’s Electronics TNCs in Asia

The Japanese electronics industry went through a wave of re-structuring and relocation in mid 1990s such that out of 271 subsidiaries of Sony as an example, 71 closed down. It was corresponded with workers’ struggles the peak of which came in 1997 and 1998. Yet the struggles died down after 2000. The relocation is also related to the foreign trade policies of the government. The Japanese government negotiated and signed Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with developing countries on economic development, technology transfer with foreign governments. Yet the integration of labour standards and labour disputes mechanism into the EPA is not clear.

In terms of voluntary monitoring mechanism, there is very little experience of using company code of conduct to campaign and pressure Japanese capital. Although Japan is a signatory member of OECD, yet using OECD CSR guidelines does not seem to be an effective way because it is not compulsory and has weak authority over Japanese capital although it can be considered as a campaign tool.

Tsai Chih-Chieh, Ching-Jen Labour Health and Safety Centre, Taiwan – the PCB industry of Taiwan

The use of migrant labour in the Taiwanese electronics industry is widespread. About one-third to half of the electronics workers in Taiwan are migrants. This is creating division amongst the workers as the migrant workers are paid under the same wage scale as the local workers. But in reality the minimum wage is the maximum wage the migrant workers actually received. Competition is generated amongst workers and the employers always use that against the demands of the local workers.

The PCB industry is gender divided. The more technology and capital intensive section of PCB manufacturing is male dominated eg the design of the circuit board; whereas women are mostly found in the manufacturing sites as machine operators. The pay scale for the latter is just above the minimum wage. Despite the low payment, electronics workers, especially those working in big companies like Nokia are very proud of their job.

The PCB industry has a long history of establishment since more than 35 years. Large scale factories are those employing more than 1000 workers while most of the factories today are employing 300 to 400 workers. Even today the OSH conditions in the PCB industry are still very bad. There had been union organising efforts in the eighties in the middle of the workers’ struggle for wage increase. The PCB industry is unionised on company union basis. That, as well as the threat of factory relocation is decreasing the strength of the PCB unions.

Dae-oup Chang, Asia Monitor Resource Centre, Hong Kong: Electronics Industry in Korea: an introduction

Dae-oup points out that there is confusion in the statistics about the electronics industry and that reflects the changing nature of the industry in Korea. The Korean government divides the electronics industry into 3 groups: industrial electronics, home electronics and electronics components. Still there is confusion such as the three categories do not necessarily capture the computer sector as computers are used both at home and for businesses. Home appliances for instance are called white goods. But neon signs are considered home electronics even though it’s for commercial use.

Sanyo was the first foreign capital to invest in the Korean electronics industry in 1960s through joint ventures for the purpose of transferring technology for low cost production and export. The period also saw American investment for similar purposes. The chaebols became more important players in the seventies. By the eighties, the industry showed a clear domination by 4 big chaebols, they were Daewoo, Samsung, LG and Hyundai. Only LG began as an electronics company, the others such as Daewoo started investment in the textile industry. 1990s marked the time when Korean electronics companies began overseas investment in South East Asia, as well as China and Eastern Europe. The Financial Crisis in 1997 forced many Korean companies to re-adjust the employment system, diversify the product structure and develop different market strategies such as shortening the product cycle. The re-structuring went together with the globalisation strategies. About 70 percent of the manufacturing in Korea is for export although the industry is still dependent on import of some strategic components. The changes undergone shows that the Korean electronics industry does not have competitiveness on low-end products but it is not so for companies that have the capacities and technology to upgrade production for the high-end market. The industry is important to the Korean economy and it is a huge employer to Korean labour.

Nevertheless the investment and labour practices of the Korean electronics industry have not been well studied except for LG and Samsung which largely focus on the success of their business strategies. New management practices are constantly introduced for example, the team system which allows the management to have much control over the production technique. Samsung for example sets up a union every year to pre-empt the registration of independent trade union under single trade unionism at the workplace in Korean law. That would be changed after 2007 and more than one union can be registered with the same company. The reason why Samsung workers could not form trade union is that they are paid above-market and have high company welfare therefore using trade union to improve immediate working conditions is not necessary to the workers. Moreover to work in Samsung is a dream job for a lot of people and they are very proud of it. Despite that, every year there are attempts to set up unions in Samsung and the subsidiaries. The most significant case was the organising at Samsung Insurance which ended in the dismissal of all the organisers. In other cases, the worker groups might have succeeded to register the union with the government but Samsung gave bribery to the leaders and collapsed the union formation. Similarly, union busting in Korean owned electronics companies have been reported in the Philippines. It is common to find the Korean management uses bribery and other tactics such as ‘voluntary separation’ and yellow union to derail independent union organising.

Krishna Shekhar Lal Das, CEC, India: General picture of electronics industry in India and two cases of Indian electronics workers organising

Sheka added updates to the two cases in his presentations. In the case of ???, the legal proceeding is still going on although it is now pursued by a local union rather than the 250 workers as some of them have found other jobs and left. In general, the situation is moving in favour of the management rather than workers. In the case of ???, the union is still there but it was not able to have collective bargaining with the management and therefore it stays weak. This is a common problem found in the electronics sector in India.

The two cases in point in 1994 and 1998 are about wages which was the most serious issue at that time. The problem of the industry today is different. Informalised employment in the industry through increasing use of contract labour and temporary labour etc is deteriorating the labour conditions in terms of job security and wages. It cannot be assumed that electronics workers are materially better off than others. Nor can it be assumed that workers employed in big companies earn more. The minimum wage in India is first of all not sufficient for subsistence. Secondly, it is not a uniform pay scale therefore giving loopholes to employers to pay skilled workers the wage of un-skilled workers and not paying others even the legal minimum.

Besides, the problem of informalisation of labour in the industry is escalating. This labour phenomenon is related to two forms of sub-contracting. There is a growth in small-sized factories that sub-contract particular production process from other assembler factories that supply to other companies. On the other hand, large-sized factories increasingly use dispatch labour to work at the same workplace with the regular workers therefore creating division between workers. It impacts on the division in labour organising as regular workers are more readily organised but not the irregular workers who may be working in the same workplace for less than a month. To be trade union member is associated with fear and negativity nowadays and it is particularly so in the electronics industry.

Different way of organising should be developed. Shekar thinks it should involve different stakeholders including social organizations, NGOs, community organizations etc. That is not easy as the division between trade unions is already serious in India. Despite attempts to bridge the gap, the party-affiliated union division directly hampers shop floor organising.  

Somyot Pruksakasemsuk, CLIST; and Panumart Buttarach, National Panasonic of Thailand Union, Thailand: Electronics industry and workers organising in Thailand - experiences and plans

The Thai electronics industry manufactures and exports two main types of products: computer parts particularly hard disk drives and electrical appliances. Most of the foreign investment comes from Taiwan and Japan although Korean investment is beginning to increase.

The focal point of the MMI case is the use of dispatch labour. MMI is a Singapore company that produces the external cover and the head of the hard disc drive. The company employs a majority of male workers, only 5 percent ie 3,000 workers are women. The workers are employed by the labour agent. Dispatch labour is becoming more widespread and it is estimated that 50 percent of the whole workforce in Thailand are regular workers and the other half are informal (contractual/dispatch) workers. The labour dispatch boom was started after the Financial Crisis in 1997. Unlike Japan and Korea where the government at least laid down conditions of using only skilled workers for labour dispatch and the government also limited the practice to a number of industries, there is no such restriction and no provision on the maximum period for regularisation of the dispatch workers in Thailand. After 1997, the Supreme Court of Thailand had ruled and legalised the labour agents which led to the widespread phenomenon. It created division amongst the Thai unions as they have different views on this. Some of them campaign for equal rights of dispatch workers or regulation such as restricting the size of dispatch workers in a company. But for CLIST, the dispatch system should be abolished. The Thai labour law does not restrict dispatch workers to form trade unions and the MMI case is a success case of organising. The MMI union was part of the Labour Congress of Thailand and later it was affiliated with the Democratic Alliance Federation. CLIST is now focussing on organising dispatch workers into industrial union and the abolition of the dispatch system.

Cecille, Workers Assistance Center, the Philippines: Organising electronics workers in export processing zones

WAC conducted a study on the electronics workers in 2004 and 2005. About 80 percent of the workers in the Cavite export processing zone (EPZ) are women. The study finds that workers in trans-national companies (TNCs) are less easy to organise, compared with workers from small-medium sized factories since the TNCs provide higher wages and more benefits. Yet increased informalisation of labour and the no-union-no-strike policy in the Cavite EPZ are hindering the organising. The organising therefore shifts to the community approaching workers and the families through religious and social activities. WAC finds that OSH is an entrance point issue particular in the electronics industry. Still, the unionising rate in the EPZ is very low and the only electronics company that is unionised is Yazaki company which manufactures electronics auto parts and is categorised in the electronics sector. More obstacles are expected as the government has started a new round of oppression labelling some unions and organisations like WAC as terrorist organisations.

K. Shan, Labour Research Centre, Malaysia: The Harris case and plans on setting up a National Union on electronics workers with MTUC

LRC supports union organising by providing legal assistance, disseminating information, conducting labour education and organising workers into focus groups. Shan gave a brief outline of the history and main problems of trade union organising in Malaysia. Trade union organising has a historical background of being politicised in Malaysia. The leftist Labour Party formed when Malaysia was still a British colony, had long been labelled as communist and radical organisation. Under the Internal Security Act (ISA), the labour party was destroyed and trade union was further considered a hindrance to national economic development and foreign investment under the Mahathir government. Since then, the trade union movement had been seeking new ways of organising such as adopting the legal strategy and using international pressure through filing complaints on freedom of association to the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in the case of organising the electronics industry in the early eighties. But it was generally marginalised. The ban on trade union was lifted in 1988 which was an important turning point for union formation in the electronics industry. However many labour activists were still arrested after that.

Other than the state, trade union organising in the electronics industry is obstructed by the employers through the trade associations namely the American Electronics Industrial Association and the Association of Multinational Companies. The trade associations are powerful because the government is dependent on prominent capital to transfer the much-needed technology and therefore is ready to concede trade union rights to them.  

The Harris Company case:

Organising in the electronics industry was intense in the eighties. Attempts were made to form company unions to challenge the prohibition. The American invested companies became the target and the first case of which was the Harris company. Harris was an important player initially owned by RCA. When GE bought out RCA later, Harris bought the RCA-GE plant and other electronics companies in the neighbourhood. The complicated investment relations gave chance to Harris and hindered the registration of the union as the in-house union was formed in one of the plants bearing a different registered company name. Despite government recognition of the union and the complaint filed by the International Metal Workers’ Federation (IMF) to the ILO against the illegal non-recognition of the union by Harris, the company did not give in. Furthermore, Harris started to transfer workers to other factories leaving the unionised factory with no operation and the workers with under-employment. Many workers were sacked and Harris even closed down the unionised factory. The litigation for union recognition went on for 6 years after which the union finally won the case and the union leaders were reinstated. Yet only shortly afterwards the company appealed to the court again for illegalising the trade union since the company had again changed the name of the company. The case finally came to the end with the union losing what they had won.

One of the implications of the Harris case to union organising is the urge for the organisers to find new approaches vis-à-vis union busting practices that are linked to manipulative investment strategies. The Malaysia Trade Union Confederation (MTUC), LRC and the Harris union/group agreed on the need to change the union organising strategy to industrial union organisation in order to secure the union bargaining power which is either denied or weakened in the case of company-based unions. Since national union formation is defined by geographical mandate and the electronics industry is highly limited to only 3 regions in the country, forming an industrial union is more suitable. At the moment there are 12 company-based trade unions in the electronics industry in Malaysia and yet 11 of them are yellow unions and the other one is a shell union ready to collapse.

Approaches to organising workers are also re-considered. Electronics workers that are generally skilled and employed in R&D are locals whereas the production line work is taken up by mainly migrant workers. While organising the migrant workers is difficult given the employment pressure and temporary residence in the country, approaching the local electronics workers should also be adjusted to take on softer means targeting the workers’ need for job security through skills and technology training. The union also attempts to mediate more organising space by supporting policies on enhancing the investment and sustainability of the industry as it is important to the Malaysian economy. LRC thinks that researches on the industry in Malaysia and in the global are needed for that as well as for worker education.

Famhi, LIPS, Indonesia: Electronics workers in Indonesia and its organising pattern

The electronics industry in Indonesia is limited to low-technology production and the biggest manufacturing sector is still textile and garment. That might change in 2007 with the creation of the regional market after the abolition of tariffs on electronics goods in the ASEAN.

On the other hand the labour relation in Indonesia is being informalised under the high unemployment pressure which has reached 40 million, not to mention the growth in the new labour force of 2.5 million every year. Contractual and dispatch labour is increasingly used which makes unionising more difficult other than having to face the traditional union busting methods used by the management as shown in the Hirose case. The management uses subtle means such as transferring organisers to low-paid and mean jobs to marginalise their organising.

LIPS is taking a relatively more open attitude to support union organising by approaching company unions even though they might not be independent trade unions in the beginning. They are included in the trade union education in attempt to radicalise them and the workers. Other approaches such as community organising and organising informal workers are also being explored.

Overall Mapping of Issues

The electronics industry is an industry rising in importance in the Asian region both in terms of contribution to national GDP and employment. More prominent and export-oriented investment in electronics is usually found in the EPZs where most of the companies are part of the global production network of giant electronics TNCs from both the West and North Asia.

The electronics industry has distinguished OSH problems in the electronics industry is given much importance in the discussion of organising strategies as an entrance point.  High-end companies at least provide relatively clean and tidy working conditions and OSH education to workers. However, that could work against workers since it disguises the invisible danger caused by toxic materials. Indeed, the OSH education, if not related with workers power to fix it, is merely a way of transferring the responsibility of the management for OSH to the individual workers.

Though a booming industry, production line jobs in the electronics companies are becoming precarious. The tendency for electronics capital to replace regular employment with dispatch labour is systematic and widespread in Thailand. This is the same in India where the production process and network in the electronics industry has changed making employment as well as the working time and wages more flexibilised. The trend however, is not limited to the developing countries but capital exporting countries such as Korea that was hard hit by the Financial Crisis in 1997 after which informalisation, combined with more subtle human resources management practices, was used to curb labour organising. Besides, women workers continue to be subjected to discrimination such as no-pregnancy in Thailand, as well as wage discrimination and sexual division of labour across different sectors of different technological level in the industry.

Yet it is also hard to give a simple picture to the conditions of the electronics workers. There is big gap in the labour conditions and relations along the vertical production chain and between the high and low capital input sectors. The working conditions in sectors of higher capital input or at the assembler level are better than those in the low-end sectors and the sub-contractors where the conditions are not different from sweatshops. Particular human resources management practices are found in high-end, high capital input sectors such as delivery of company shares to workers, better welfare, performance-based pay system and company philosophy education as in the examples of companies such as Samsung Korea and other companies in Japan and the Philippines. Management successes in using these methods largely result in union-free companies or corporate unionism in the industry. On the other hand the constraints on union organising in electronics sweatshops in the low-end, low capital input sectors are related more to blunt union busting practices of the management. And yet, labour resistance is more active in these sectors.

As the electronics industry is changing itself in terms of production methods and technology as well as the use of labour, the participants agree that organisers and trade unions in the region need to acquire more comprehensive understanding through research on both the capital and the labour aspect. Trade union organising in this industry needs to find new ways to resolve old challenges and adapt to new ones the most pressing of which is the informalisation of labour. Traditional workplace organising has limitation vis-à-vis the management practices and particularities of labour of the electronics industry. It needs to diversify and integrate with other means of organising which exceeds the boundary of the factory walls to the living communities, as well as other social aspects of the workers. This is reflected in a number of attempts in the Philippines and Indonesia to organise worker forums, worker groups and alliance associations before or rather than forming workplace trade unions. Suggestions are also given to expand workplace labour organising with community-based environmental issues.

On the other hand, solidarity between labour organisations and trade unions between capital exporting and importing countries has not been achieved in the electronics industry. Yet such company-based cross-border solidarity may also have constraints as the breakthrough point of actual organising is usually found not in the subsidiaries of the TNCs but the second or third tier suppliers. Moreover the trade unions of electronics TNCs in the home country are usually corporate or yellow trade union. This again re-affirms the limitation of campaigns or organising strategies from top down and the entrance point of organising and solidarity should rather be coming from the spontaneous needs and actions of electronics workers in actual cases.

In comparing the labour abuses of different Asian investment, it is generally found that Japan, Korea and Taiwan capital are frequently associated with union busting and labour rights violations under different means. While blunt abuses are still being practiced, the Asian capital is using more subtle means in general. The Korean management for instance is using less torture after being put under pressure from the Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However capital relocation is a frequently used strategy to curb labour organising. Means suggested on that include public campaigns for legislation in the home country of investment on seizure of the company assets against run-away capital in the developing countries or criminalisation of run-away capital in the host developing countries etc. Yet there are many difficulties such as the technical ones of changing of company names, manipulation of investment relations and lack of comprehensive company investment profiles (from the end of the host countries). It is also hard to press the host countries which are under the pressure of attracting FDI. The basics of the legal monitoring approach have not been established yet as the trade unions and NGOs have not started systematic investigation of the legal framework of extra-territorial jurisdiction on labour cases. Besides, too much reliance on the legal approach might not necessarily enhance direct organising on the shop floor. But it should still be part of the multi-approach that includes direct support to improving grass-root organising skills, worker education and public campaigns to regulate capital. Rather than replacing the work that has been done by network members, the network can base on that to consolidate and develop supportive methods and mechanisms on the regional level

Mapping of Past and Current Work on the Electronics Industry

Asia MonitorResource Centre

The previous projects regarding the electronics industry is focussed on OSH such as the publication of the OSH manual. The ATNC Network will include the electronics industry into the overall project framework of supporting organising in the region.

HKCIC

Research has been done on the labour conditions and supply chain of computer manufacturing in Chinas in 2003 and 2004 which covers mainly Taiwanese and a bit of Japanese and Korean investment. In this research and the subsequent campaign that follows, OSH problems and organising through OSH issues are in focus. The research was later used to support the computer campaign launched in 2004 by the UK-based organisation CAFOD. The impact is limited by the fact that the research was not based exactly on identified cases of worker organising and therefore it resulted in TNC-targeted consumer campaign and the latter’s reaction in top-down corporate social responsibility framework. The CSR approach of the western trans-national companies does not effect in directly supporting worker organising in the industry in China. HKCIC will focus rather in identifying and supporting concrete cases of worker actions in the electronics factories in China.

Yokohoma Action Research Center

YARC does not have established worker contact in the electronics industry. But YARC can contact the electronics trade unions in Japan and support the network with researches on the government policies, capital investment and the regional production of the Japanese companies.

Thailand Labour Campaign

TLC has been engaging some electronics unions such as MIKS Electronics union for several years for their support in other organising activities such as the Olympics campaign in 2004, the anti-WTO activities, privatisation and migrant workers etc rather than specific to the electronics industry. TLC will participate in the network in terms of research but not direct organising of electronics workers.

CLIST

CLIST has been organizing workers in electronics industry for two years targeting the PCB industry in Thailand, and the abolition of dispatch labour in this sector.

Committee of Asian Women

In 1995 CAW published a report on women workers in the electronics industry. There is not much work done afterwards. CAW however is considering doing new research in the industry from the point of view of women workers.

LIPS

The entrance point for LIPS with regard to the electronics industry is to examine the difficulties and look for new opportunities in organising to identify ways of support and collaboration with the trade unions.

Ching Jen Labour Health and Service Centre

Contact has been established with electronics workers mainly in the PCB sector in Taiwan through the trade unions. The PCB companies are mostly organised on the basis of company unions. Yet the company based unions are not strong. The membership rate is dropping and the unions are challenged with defending the rights of their members and factory relocation. The way of engagement would be facilitating support amongst the trade unions for the establishment of an industrial union in the sector. A research project will be undertaken on the PCB unions in Taoyuan this summer.

Labour Research Centre

LRC has not done much on the electronics industry. Most of the relevant work done is related to the Harris case. LRC however wants to develop more work programs in this industry as this is a booming industry in Malaysia and the next stage target of organising an industrial union is clear. LRC is considering more work to be done on campaign, legal assistance and supporting grass-root organizing. 

CEC

CEC has done researches and supported campaigns on the electronics industry. It was not very systematic. More research and capacity building programs to support organising under new initiatives through the ATNC network is possible.

Workers Assistance Center

Since 1999, WAC has been organising electronics workers in the EPZ in Cavite. There are by now 5 unions formed in the sector but they have all been busted by the management. In 2001, WAC conducted a research on the industry focussing on 7 Japanese and US owned TNCs that were organising targets. They are significant players in the industry. The research and organising is also part of the larger research and organising project of the regional alliance against labour flexibilisation. The regional study includes other sectors and the study of the extent, forms and impact of flexibilisation will be used for lobbying and organising

The participants agreed that the goal of the network in regard to the electronics industry is to support labour organising in the industry in each country. Whether it is trade union organising or other forms of labour organising, the network should seek to facilitate exploration, discussions, debates and mutual learning on the ways of organising in the electronics industry. We identified 3 main area of work within the network: Organising, Networking and Solidarity; and 3 issues that our work can be structured around: Informalisation of labour, Right to Organise and Relocation of capital/Run-away capital. Support and solidarity between East Asian and South East Asian countries should be promoted and we need an effective structure for that.

Coming up with a plan for short and long term

The network needs to identify the concrete support that we can provide either directly or indirectly to organising the electronics industry.

(1) Identifying the Organisers

Despite the challenges, there is a track of grass-root organising in the electronics industry in the region. The network members would identify organisers from the country and bring them together to share the experiences and identify further the needs and support they need. LIPS will involve the worker groups in Batam Island and west Java Indonesia where the industry is located. The metal workers’ union, SPMI that has supported organising in Hiroce and Epson should be engaged. LRC already has established contacts with electronics unions and organisers in Malaysia through the Harris case. They and the MTUC would be the appropriate target to bring to the network. In the case of Thailand, CLIST has an in-house electronics organiser and through the Democratic Alliance (ADTU), another industry union on computer parts manufacturing could be pulled in. For the other network members not directly involved in organising electronics workers, there is more to do in finding out the organisers and explaining the network to them. Some of the community based organisations in China have built contact with electronics workers mostly using OSH as an entrance point for awareness education. HKCIC would attempt to involve these labour groups. Organising in the electronics industry in the capital exporting countries in East Asia is not easy to identify. For instance organised unions in electronics companies in Korea and Japan do not belong to the democratic trade union federation. But there is a recognised need amongst the members that the Korean unions should be involved more in the regional solidarity. Dae-oup would approach the metal union under the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU). The PCB unions in Taiwan are weak and have dropping membership rate. It would be difficult to involve them in regional solidarity as they are focussed only on defending the rights of their members. YRG is ready to participate in research but does no think it is possible to involve Japanese unions in the sector. The unionising rate is too low and decreasing. Similarly, the national unions in India on the other hand are fragmented and do not have much basis in the electronics industry. CEC would have to review its contact with electronics organisers in India to participate in the network’s plan.

(2) Exchange Meeting of Organisers

The follow up meeting on the electronics industry would be an exchange meeting of organisers identified by members from Thailand, the Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, China, Taiwan, Korea. CLIST suggested that the network should play more pro-active role in directly funding and putting in organisers at the national level. But this is not the role the ATNC network has been playing which is rather indirectly assisting national organising through facilitating research, exchange and training programs. The network would keep itself to this role for the time being. The next electronics meeting should help the network to understand better what level of regional solidarity and training programs should be arranged to assist grass-root organising.

(3) How to support?

Training Manual

The level of engagement members have on the electronics sector is different. Members have different focus and expertise for example in direct organising for some and research capacity for others. It is necessary that the network identify the gaps in the information and organising tools the network possesses to plan further what needs to be done. At the moment the basis of organising is stronger in Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia. Members from these countries should play greater role in consolidating and sharing the training resources within the network. WAC would coordinate a task force with LRC and CLIST to develop a training manual. The training manual should include two parts. The first part provides a theoretical and macro framework of analysis of the significance and general social impact of the electronics industry and the second part is about organising skills. Dae-oup will take care of the first part and the second part will be compiled by the task force.

Information and Research

Members that are involved in direct organising recognise that there are gaps in the understanding about the industry in general and the companies targeted for organising in particular. The East Asian members can fill in that gap by researching and collecting information about specific capital and companies such as the history of the company, production network, management practices and track history of worker organising and unionising in the home country etc. A number of East Asian electronics companies that are active in South East Asia and fall into the target of organising of our members are identified. They include:   

Companies that manufacture consumer products: Intel, Cypress, APC (American Power Conversion): Sony, Sumito Metals, Sanyo, Panasonic, Epson, Canon, Nikkon, Samsung, LG, Matzushita. And Companies that manufacture parts and components: MMI, Lite On, CKL. The information needed includes:

l          Company headquarters and subsidiaries

l          Wage, working hours

l          Trade union and CBA; history of labour dispute

l          Email of company directors/owners

l          Major trading partners

l          Products

l          OSH issues or main problems

Ching Jen would research and provide information on CKL and Lite On. Dae-oup would research on LG and Samsung. Since the majority of the target companies are Japanese companies, YRG would collect information on Sumitomo, Panasonic, Sanyo and Epson (as priority) as well as Nikkon, Sony, Toshiba.

Timeframe

The exchange meeting is scheduled in November this year. Between this meeting and the annual conference in August, members would identify organisers and confirm their participation in the November exchange meeting. The task force would start to compile the training materials. The three organisations involved can make use of participating in the FES sponsored electronics meeting to be held in Malaysia in May to meet and decide the content of the training manual. The part on the macro framework will be integrated by Dae-oup and the manual should be ready by the end of September.

Information gathered in this meeting would be compiled into a report and a short abstract in two months’ time for members to report back and involve more organisations at the national level.

Appendix One

Workshop Programme

Day One 28^th March - Understanding Electronics industry in Asia

Dae-oup Chang (AMRC) Introduction to the workshop

Stephen Frost (City University of Hong Kong): What about Electronics? – Major research questions in Electronics sector

Monina Wong (Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee) – Electronics industry in China

Kaneko Fumio (Yokohama Action Research Centre) – Japan’s Electronics TNCs in Asia

Tsai Chih-Chieh (Ching-Jen Labour Health and Safety Centre) - PCB industry of Taiwan

Day Two 29^th March – Cases on workers and trade unions in electronics firms

Dae-oup Chang (Asia Monitor Resource Centre) – Korean electronics industry – an introduction

Krishna Shekhar Lal Das (CEC, India): ‘General picture of electronics industry in India and two cases of Indian electronics workers organising’.

Somyot Pruksakasemsuk (CLIST, Thailand) and Panumart Buttarach (National Panasonic of Thailand Union): ‘Electronics Industry and workers organising in Thailand - experiences and plans’

K. Shan (LRC, Malaysia): ‘the Harris Advantage Union busting case and plans on setting up a National Union on electronics workers with MTUC’

Cecille (WAC, Philippines): ‘Organising Electronics Workers in Export Processing Zones’

Famhi (LIPS): ‘Electronics workers in Indonesia and its organising pattern’

Day three: Mapping the industry and developing a collective work plan on electronics sector

Day four: excursion to factories– Shenzen, China

Appendix Two

List of participants

-Tsai Chih-Chieh (Ching-Jen Labour Health and Safety Centre, Taiwan) cjlhassc@ms39.hinet.net

-Krishna Shekhar Lal Das (Centre for Education and Communication, India) shekhar@labourfile.org

-Kaneko Fumio (Yokohama Action Research Centre, Japan) kaneko@yokohama-cu.ac.jp

-Jini Young Park (Committee for Asian Women) jini@cawinfo.org

-K. Shan (Labour Research Centre, Malaysia) k_shan08@yahoo.co.uk

-Cecille and Lisa (Workers Assistance Center, Philippines) wacl@pacific.net.ph

-Famhi (LIPS, Indonesia) lips@lips.or.id

-Dae-oup Chang (Asia Monitor Resource Centre) chang@amrc.org.hk;

-Stephen Frost (City University of Hong Kong) sefrost@cityu.edu.hk

-Monina Wong and Vikki Chan (Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee) monina@cic.org.hk; vikki@cic.org.hk

-Somyot Pruksakasemsuk (Centre for Labour, Information, Service and Training, Thailand) clist@loxinfo.co.th

-Panumart Buttharach (National Panasonic of Thailand Union) b_panumart@yahoo.com

-Dennis Arnold and Aoi Chawphrae (Thai Labour Campaign, Thailand) dennis@thailabour.org; usawadee@thailabour.org