Posts Tagged ‘EPZ’

Where the rubber hits the road: Union organising in EPZs

Posted: March 27, 2012 in Rights around the world
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Cavite Export Processing Zone

Cavite Export Processing Zone (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

If union organising can succeed in an export processing zone (EPZ), it can succeed anywhere.

I have hit upon an important article, published in 2006, about successful unionisation in EPZs titled The Squeaky Wheel’s Dilemma.

The very fact that we hear so much about the EPZs of the world (did someone say Shenzhen?) tells us that they have the potential to be organised. It’s something of a paradox. The International Metalworkers’ Federation (IMF) bewails the state of Batam’s factories yet, relatively speaking, the island is a stronghold of membership. After hearing what McKay had to say, I am no longer surprised.

As human beings, we all want to find the silver bullet. The unmoveable object or the unstoppable force. Time and again it proves illusory or -more likely- creates an asymmetry which is soon rebalanced. Think of what happens in business: whenever a new, highly profitable, product is launched, the competitors are out with imitations to eat up market share, or they might even target the entire company for takeover. Unfortunately labour conditions can’t be fixed once and for all but require continued hard work to be secured and thereafter to be retained.

Labour in EPZs sounds outrageously inexpensive to a business considering relocating. Not only are wages lower but cost of regulatory compliance and risk of industrial unrest are lower too. In addition to being officially red-tape free zones, EPZs also prefer to employ mostly young, rural females in their first job.

The deck is stacked pretty solidly in favour of employers: Labour laws are weak or unenforceable, contracts are short-term, and the workers are migrants with no social ties to the place of work anyway. It’s all a little too good to be true, and it is.

McKay uses Cavite in the Philippines as his example. Despite all of these advantages, companies still require the assent of both the workforce and, moreover, the local authorities to continue their operations. Few will stare down a workforce that is prepared to strike. Also workers have the advantage of being voting residents of the local area, whose authorities can be lobbied into taking action about flagrant abuses. Lastly labour can access international support that can not only provide advice and resources but also place pressure on the company at various levels.

It’s not as dire as it seems. The very fact that we are hearing about Foxconn means that someone is taking an active interest in those workers’ rights and is getting some access to them. The problems are real but capable of improvement.

Source:

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Postcard from Batamindo, Singapore’s Guangdong

Posted: January 31, 2012 in Indonesia, Site announcements
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Hello from Indonesia, readers! Not a lot to say just now however I hope to be able to bring you some voices from Batam in due course.

If you want to read more about the situation of the electronics workers on Batam, there is an excellent write-up on Asia Monitor Resource Center’s website:

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Worker resistance takes different forms in export zones

Posted: February 14, 2011 in Indonesia
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The factories that make popular consumer gadgets including computer components, smartphones and video game consoles mostly employ young single women. This remains true all across Asia.
Amongst factory owners, the conventional wisdom is that women more suitable because they have ‘smaller nimbler fingers’, are less likely to rush to finish a task (thus making errors), and they make more pliant workers generally. So the products thought of as “boys’ toys” are mostly assembled by women!
To obtain factory work, these young women move from rural areas within an industralising country (and sometimes from a neighbouring country). They have little education and realistically a factory job may be their best-paid option. Usually they send home a large part of their earnings to support their family at home; nearly 50% on average.
In places such as Batam Island, Indonesia, the workers have no cultural attachment to the place they live and no social life. They often work extended hours to fill the time and to provide themselves with some more income, since so much of it goes into remittances or cost-of-living expenses.
So far it seems like a mutually beneficial arrangement, however these women receive no guarantee of ongoing employment. They are usually employed on one- or two-year contracts with no guarantee of ongoing work. It is unusual for workers to stay in these workplaces more than a few years and very unusual beyond the age of 25. Unions call this precarious employment and they put the proportion of Indonesian workers employed precariously at 70% and on the Island of Batam at 98%.
Precarious workers do not receive social security entitlements, undercutting their prospects for long-term prosperity and good health.
They also do not remain in the workplace long enough to develop a sense of ownership, which is a loss for both employees and employers because long-term committed employees give feedback that leads to improved processes.

Photo:IMF Metal

Indonesian metalworkers unions FSPMI and Lomenik have made inroads in recent years in organising workers in Batamindo around the issues of ongoing employment and unfair dismissal. Today there are more than 50,000 union members 0n the island and it is regarded as a model for unions seeking to improve the rights of EPZ workers in the region.
That is not the full story however. As a result of past government crackdowns and also of ongoing union militancy, joining a union retains a stigma. The women who do not choose to join the union still exercise other means of resistance, such as slowing down work processes, taking extra long toilet breaks, being absent enmasse and even confronting bosses individually. There are working women’s organisations that do not take the form of traditional unions.
It may sound ironic but the issue that seems to cause the most grief is increasing wages(!) when companies do it indiscriminately or across-the-board, without taking account of seniority.
Sources:

Garment workers left hung out to dry

Posted: January 5, 2011 in Indonesia
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A factory stands idle just north of Indonesia’s capital, Jakarta. Your household could well contain a shirt that was made in it: the 600 workers at Mutiara Busana Apparellindo (“Pearl Clothing” or PT MMBA) made clothing for brands including Esprit, Tommy Hilfiger, Polo Ralph Lauren and K-Mart.

Some of the workers were there today, but not working. They were abandoned when the operating company went into receivership, withdrawing its managers and operating finance. However the company did not divest itself of the plant as an asset and the workers have now been staging a sit-in for more than 12 months.

They are owed substantial entitlements including unpaid wages, severance pay and social security payments. The Jakarta-based Trade Union Rights Centre (TURC) has obtained a decision of the Industrial Court that these be paid. However, before that can happen, other claims on the money need to be forgiven.

Amongst those claims is a debt to Nusantara Bonded Zone, the EPZ authority in which the factory is located. The authority has been reluctant to do this; the whole point of a free-trade zone is for companies to operate with minimal regulation and they do not wish to start a precedent that might deter other foreign investors. The continued sit-in, then, is the workers’ insurance that the Nusantara authority will eventually act on the order of the Court.

  • Why not give them some encouragement? You can write to them at sekper@kbn.co.id. All you need to say is “Please allow the PT MMBA workers to be paid the money they are owed” (Don’t worry, they understand English)

Source: ‘Pengusaha Kabur, Buruh Melawan Pemerintah’ Lembur (TURC Newsletter) Nov/Dec 2009

The people who make your TV live and work here

Posted: January 3, 2011 in Indonesia
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Worker dormitories on Batam Island, near Singapore

This photograph is taken at Batamindo Industrial Estate on Batam Island. Batam Island is part of Indonesia but only a short ferry ride from Singapore. Many companies have regional headquarters in Singapore but base their manufacturing operations across the strait in Batam. It enjoyed a brief moment of fame in 2010 when debris fell onto the island from a Qantas A380 experiencing engine failure shortly after take-off from Singapore.

Map showing relative location of Batam and Singapore

Since being set aside for development in 1972, the population of Batam has grown from about 6,000 to one million today.

There are many industrial estates conducting manufacturing. Batamindo, pictured above, employs and houses 80,000 workers. Well known companies with a presence in Batamindo include Casio, Epson, Panasonic, Philips, Sanyo, Sanwa, Siemens, Sony, and TEAC. The components they work on include LCD screens, rechargeable batteries, computer cables and remote control units.

The majority of the workers are young women from small towns and kampungs across Indonesia, who are considered unskilled and easily replaceable. They are given short-term contracts rather than permanent employment, leaving them with no job security (sometimes called ’precarious employment’).

Wages in light manufacturing are about $100 a month. Because of the nature of Batam, none of the production-line workers live close to their families. They share dormitories in groups of sixteen and sleep on bunk beds. They often send a large part of their earnings back to their home province, to support their families.

We’ll revisit Batam later.