NetNews Usenet Archive 1992 #27/NN_1992_27.iso/spool/misc/activism/progress/8416

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Subject: MM: TRADING LABOR RIGHTS IN MALAYSIA
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TRADING LABOR RIGHTS IN MALAYSIA

By the Asia Monitor Resource Center

[Published in the October 1992 issue of Multinational Monitor]

Under international pressure to allow unionization in its country's
electronics industry, the Malaysian government has instead stepped up
its anti-union rhetoric and tactics.  After learning that the
International Metal Workers Federation (IMF) was lobbying for a motion
of the United Nations-affiliated International Labor Organization (ILO)
to sanction the Malaysian government, Human Resources Minister Datuk Lim
Ah Lek instituted a series of vigorous attacks on the IMF, the Malaysian
Trade Union Congress (MTUC) and local unions.

Lim has attacked the MTUC and "certain local unions" for trying to
"embarrass" the government.  In April, Lim said that MTUC leaders were
irresponsible for criticizing the government and lodging complaints with
international bodies.  He also called upon MTUC affiliates to "do
something about it," charging that union leaders had been "sitting too
long doing nothing," and "getting away with too many things."  Lim
even criticized trade union officials for being paid excessive salaries
and enjoying more perks than other professionals.

The MTUC has had to face not only government attacks, but criticism from
rival labor organizations.  Cuepacs (Congress of Unions and Employees of
Public and Civil Services) and the Malaysian Labor Organization (MLO)
were quick to pledge their support for the government's stance.  MLO
president, Mohamad Abas, says that the ban of national unions in the
electronics industry safeguards national interests.  Officials of
Cuepacs, the largest affiliate of the MLO, criticized the IMF for
singling out Malaysia in its complaint to the ILO, arguing that many
other member countries do not comply with ILO Convention requirements.
After the IMF submitted its request to the ILO, MLO general secretary K.
Sanmugan quickly asserted that the labor organization has no power to
bar countries from attending its annual conference and can only "send
a team to investigate allegations and persuade the government to take
the necessary action."

MTUC President Zainal Rampak denies that workers' campaign is
"unpatriotic."  He says that the MTUC is "pro-investment, pro-employment
but is strongly anti-exploitation."  He explains that the MTUC and IMF
have made official complaints to international bodies only after the
government repeatedly ignored or squashed the attempts of workers to
form a union

Profiting from repression

Today, Malaysia's electronics industry employs approximately 120,000
workers.  It is one of the country's fastest growing industries and is
estimated to account for about 20 percent of Malaysia's annual economic
growth.

Multinational electronics companies began locating in Malaysia in the
early 1970s, after the country established free-trade zones in Penang.
U.S. electronics companies, among the first to invest, requested and
obtained from the Malaysian government a permanent ban on union
organizing in this sector.  Labor activists and non-governmental bodies
in Malaysia have attempted many times to organize electronics workers,
but the government, under heavy pressure from multinational
corporations, has fought against union organizing efforts [see
"Malaysia's Workers:  Jolting the Electronics Industry," Multinational
Monitor, September 1989].

In 1990, for example, 1,100 Hitachi electronics workers went on strike
when the government rejected their membership in the Electrical Industry
Workers Union (EIWU).  All workers were dismissed and were not rehired
until they apologized to the company for having gone on strike.  The
company refused to re-hire workers who had been involved in organizing
workers to join the union.

Multinationals block labor's victory

In April, the IMF called on the ILO Governing Body to use its special
powers to suspend the Malaysian government from participating in the ILO
General Conference in Geneva in June, the latest in a long series of
complaints to the ILO concerning the Malaysian government's violation of
international labor rights.  The IMF also recommended that the
suspension be upheld until the Malaysian government abides by ILO
conventions (worker rights guarantees) relating to freedom of
association, particularly for electronics workers.  Despite these
requests, the ILO allowed the Malaysian government to participate in
the conference.

Incidents like the Hitachi strike led U.S. trade unions to call for the
suspension of Malaysia from the Generalized System of Preferences
(GSP) trade program in the late 1980s.  The GSP program allows
developing countries to ship certain products duty-free into the United
States.  A country's GSP status is contingent on its upholding basic
international labor standards, including the right of workers to
organize.  The Malaysian government responded to the U.S.  labor
initiative by announcing that it would lift the ban on unions in the
electronics industry.

U.S. electronics multinationals immediately launched a massive lobbying
effort against the decision.  As a result, the Malaysian government
again changed its position and said that it would only permit "in-house"
unions.  Under this policy, company or plant-based, as opposed to
industry-wide, unions are allowed if 51 percent of the workers in a
particular plant sign up.  Six such in-house electronics unions
currently exist, according to the government.

Many Malaysian electronics workers have expressed a desire to join the
EIWU, but the government maintains that membership in the union is not
open to workers from the electronics manufacturing sector.  When the
MTUC offered to set up an electronics industry union, the Malaysian
government refused to register it.

International impacts

As a result of the IMF and MTUC's efforts to highlight labor
repression in Malaysia, worker rights in Malaysia became a major issue
at the June ILO General Conference.  During the conference, the IMF
released a book entitled Malaysia and the ILO--Two Decades of Violating
no Conventions.  In this 60-page publication, the IMF charges that
Malaysia is the "number one" contravener of ILO conventions on
organizing and collective bargaining.

The IMF claims that while there are countries where workers are more
exploited, "no other country has been so repeatedly in the dock at the
ILO on the same issues, with the same condemnation, in the same
industry, over so many years."  The IMF publication says that the
actions of the Malaysian government not only show disregard for the ILO,
but also weaken the overall position and established rights of unions in
other countries.

Before the conference took place, the IMF had made efforts to resolve
its dispute with the Malaysian government, proposing a meeting between
a Malaysian government representative, an IMF representative and a
nominee of the ILO director-general.

The government's failure to respond to labor demands led the IMF to
call upon all ILO delegates at the conference to support actions against
Malaysia, maintaining that the labor organization must adopt a
stronger position to make clear to the Malaysian government that the ILO
governing body will no longer tolerate Malaysia's repeated and
persistent flouting of key conventions.  In response, Malaysia's Prime
Minister Mohammed Mahathir reportedly threatened to denounce ILO
Convention No. 98 on anti-union discrimination and take Malaysia out
of the ILO.


The Asia Monitor Resource Center (AMRC) is a non-profit organization
based in Hong Kong that works on labor issues.  This article was
originally published in the July l 992 issue of the AMRC's Asian Labour
Update.

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