This issue of Solidarity looks at some of the increasingly successful UnionAID projects in Burma, Mae Sot, Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu.
Although unions are registering in Myanmar at a rapid rate (there are now more than 515 unions), most of their leaders are very young and have little knowledge about unions or how to organise effectively. UnionAID is funding a six month pilot to assist the Myanmar Railways union leaders to recruit and organise as many of the 20,000 employees as possible. The project will be managed by Federation of Trade Unions Burma (FTUB) Human Rights Secretary, Min Lwin. He has just returned from Mae Sot on the Thai border where he has spent the last 24 years in exile. Our vocational training proposal in Dawei was unsuccessful in attracting government funding so this will be the focus of our efforts in Burma instead.
Union membership is now 100 percent in two of the five factories organised under the UnionAID Sri Lankan partnership project with the Free Trade Zones and General Services Employees Union (FTZGSE). When the civil war in Sri Lanka ended, garment factories were set up in the north and east of the country to take advantage of the cheap labour and in response to the government’s intention to establish Free Trade Zones there. Under our project, a branch office has been established and two organisers, Ms Sody and Mr Ramachandran, appointed. Their success in managing unlawful dismissals or termination of jobs, failure to pay wages or overtime, and ethnic discrimination, has seen a rapid growth in union membership among the mainly female workforce.
Once shunned by society, the Dalit (untouchable) and Tribal (indigenous) worker participants in our project now talk proudly about how they are recognized as people and even receive letters from government officials. This sense of identity for people who traditionally sit outside the caste system was a common theme in the conversations we had when the UnionAID monitoring team visited the project in March. Although the hard data from surveys will not be analysed till the end of the project, the anecdotal evidence is that households are earning more, paying off debts and sending their children to school.
Already half way through the project, they are well on the way to meeting – and surpassing in some cases – the objectives of the project. Four worker cooperative societies have been formed, with a total of 902 members, and another for flower growers will be formed during the final year.
All talked about the benefits of purchasing raw materials and marketing collectively. Training has been a significant component of the project, with 467 people trained as trainers. These people have gone on to train another 1120 members, in both practical and business skills. The next year will provide accounting and financial skills and risk management training, and they also aim to increase credit union activity and set up life and health insurance schemes for members.
For more information visit Dalit and Tribal Workers Economic Development Project mid-term report
Even at preschool, traditional education in Thailand and Burma is sitting in rows and learning by rote. But some radical changes in teaching methods have taken place at the Parami preschool on the Thai-Burma border. A Montessori trained advisor, and a small grant for classroom resources from the Auckland Social Studies Association and from PSA staff, has meant the classroom has gone from looking like this:
…to this:
The success of the occupational training centre project has inspired at least one other organisation. The project in Mae Sot was recently visited by Thai lawyers from the Human Rights and Development Foundation, because they plan to set up a similar project in Myawaddy, which is a small border town In Burma across the bridge from Mae Sot, where a special economic zone is being established.
It is not surprising that this is seen as an effective model. The project target of 350 per year has been exceeded and now, at the end of the two years, 798 migrants (including 60 young men, mostly brothers of the trainees) have learnt industrial sewing skills and found work within days in the factories along the border and in Thailand. Employers now initiate contact with the centre seeking skilled workers and two factories provide fabric remnants and thread for the training.
A short trades course funded by UnionAID was recently run for teachers, their husbands and two students to learn the use of tools and materials, welding, carpentry, furniture design and construction, electrical engineering and wiring, and workplace health and safety. Tables and chairs were made for the school during the training. The tutor, Joseph Gonzalez, a unionist and retired engineer, has been working with the FTUB for several years, and supervised the building of the Occupational Training Centre complex of buildings. Once the school year is over, the trainees will run a ten day training for a group of school leavers.
UnionAID thanks Laila Harre for her generous donation of $2500 raised through sponsorship for her successful run at the Boston Marathon.
After four years managing this government funded programme, UnionAID now has 27 young alumni working in positions of responsibility in Burma. Most of these have leadership positions in NGOs, two are journalists, and two are working as economists advising the government as it moves towards democracy. However no decision on funding the BYCLP for a fifth year has been made because of discussions between government and immigration so we have put it on hold this year. However, after his visit to Burma last year, John Key confirmed publicly that funding would be continued so we are still hopeful.
