Asia-Pacific trade unions hold discussion in Tokyo

Labour News Network, 30 October 2004

Trade union representatives from 8 countries of Asia and Pacific region and two international trade union organizations Asia-Pacific trade unions hold discussion in Tokyo

Trade union representatives from 8 countries of Asia and Pacific region and two international trade union organizations exchanged accounts of their activities and views in Tokyo on 26 July 2004 at an International Trade Union Conference sponsored by the National Confederation of Trade Unions (ZENROREN) Japan on the eve of its 21st Regular Convention.

ZENROREN President Kanemichi Kumagai made welcome address and Secretary-General Mitsuo Bannai put forward points for discussion.

ZENROREN leaders and 15 union representatives from Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Korea, Pakistan, the Philippines and Vietnam discussed common concerns, including globalisation, increasing non-regular workers, and efforts to organize unorganised workers.

Participants spoke about increasing economic globalisation, the international transfer of goods, money, and personnel, privatisations in the interests of multinational corporations, and deregulations, that are making employment more unstable and worsening working conditions in their countries.

International participants also criticized the U.S.-led Iraq war and expressed support for Japanese workers' struggle against an adverse revision of the war-renouncing Article 9 of the Constitution.

Foreign Participants and points for discussion proposed by ZENROREN Secretary General Mitsuo Bannai are as follows:

Australia

Mr. David Noonan, National Assistant Secretary, Construction, Forestry, Mining, Energy Union (CFMEU)

China

Mr. ZHANG Jian-guo, Director, Collective Agreement Department, All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU); Mr. WANG Mingran, Chief, the Japanese Division, International Liaison Department, ACFTU

India

Mr. Shyamal Chakraborty, National Secretary, Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU)

Indonesia

Mr. Rekson Silaban, President, K-SBSI

Korea

Mr. Kang, Ik-Ku, Director of Planning Department, Federation of Korean Trade Unions (FKTU) Mr. Lee, Changgeun, International Secretary, Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU)

Pakistan

Mr. Prizada Syed Ali, Secretary General, All Pakistan Federation of United Trade Unions; Mr. Ejaz Hussein, Vice President, APFUTU; Mr. Mazhar Iqbal Danish, Deputy Education Secretary, APFUTU

Philippines

Mr. Josua Mata, Secretary General, Alliance of Progressive Labour (APL)

Vietnam

Mr. Nguyen Dinh Thang, Vice President, Vietnam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL); Mr. Vo Van Nhat, Deputy Director, Department of International Relations, VGCL

World Confederation of Labour

Ms. Necie M. Lucero, Vice President, World Confederation of Labour (WCL), and Secretary General, the Brotherhood of Asian Trade Unionists (BATU)

World Federation of Trade Unions

Mr. H. Mahadevan, Deputy Secretary General, World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU), Chief, WFTU Asia Pacific Regional Office, Deputy Secretary General, All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC)

Points for discussion

A. What issues face Asian workers and why their common ground is expanding?

• 1. Mosaic continent Asia: its diversity of nation, language, religion, social system, level of economic development, life of population, etc.
• 2. Accelerating expansion of common ground resulted from: economic globalisation and dynamic development of Asian economies, international mobility of goods, money and people, scientific and technological innovation and technology transfer, etc.
3. Enlarged gap between the rich and the poor within and among nations, intensified inequality and injustice, rule of Hegemon and unilateralist, enhancing global action against war.

B. New development of the situation, present conditions of worker’s struggles and their tasks

• 4. Worker’s activity for their demands in respective countries, trade unions tackling for strengthened organization, bargaining power and unionisation; their participation in politics and efforts for progressive change in politics, progress of workers forces in the elections of India, Korea, etc.
• 5. Efforts for establishing universal rights of workers and trade unions: WTO negotiations reached an impasse and promoted bilateral and multilateral trade agreements; international labour standards and ILO instruments; corporate social responsibility (CSR) and control over transactional corporations, democratic change of IMF and other international institutions; national sovereignty and a New International Economic Order (NIEO)
• 6. Enhancing global action against war? United actions of workers and people against the war on Iraq; World Social Forum (WSF) and Asia Social Forum; Successful Conference of Non-Aligned Nations, New currents for peace originated from Asian continent coping with the unilateralist? ASEAN Regional Forum, ASEAN+3 (China, Japan, Korea), East Asia Community; Vital importance of struggle against Japan-U.S. military alliance and revision of the Constitution of Japan (Article 9).

C. For strengthened solidarity and cooperation of Asian workers

• 7. Our common recognition: principle of equality and non-interference, promotion of mutual understanding and of joint effort on agreed points
• 8. Two factors of international workers solidarity: efforts for advancement of their struggles in respective countries and mutual support for their struggles
• 9. Recent international trade union regrouping initiatives and their impact, regionalization and globalisation of trade union work, and their globalization from grass-roots
• 10. Challenges of Asian workers and trade unions: our common issues and concrete initiatives: exchange of information, bilateral and multilateral exchanges, regional centres.