Strengthening Freedom of Association in Asia: Strategies and Mechanisms

A group of labour leaders and activists from seven Asian countries gathered to share experiences regarding “Strengthening Freedom of Association in Asia: Strategies and Mechanisms”, co-hosted by Asia Monitor Resource Centre (AMRC) and the Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR). Aggressive union-busting and violent repression of organizing have been among the chief problems faced by Asian labour organizations when they organize workers in defense of their labour rights – with gross impunity even in cases where such rights are clearly constitutionally guaranteed.

In the past ten or more years, corporations have been allowed to grow in power virtually unrestricted, while pushing workers to their limits. Both when asserting their demands at the workplace and bargaining table, and in the streets, workers have been increasingly been faced with arrests, police and security guard beatings, threats and, at the worst, disappearances and killings. The meeting agreed that repression and attacks against organizing were part of a larger effort to discipline workers to accept unprotected and flexible working conditions; and that one of the most important joint efforts to overcome trade union repression would be through sharing and boosting of organization of informal, unorganized workers. The attachment below captures the discussion of this workshop