Kelvin Cao

I have talked to a lot of professors who come to my University to teach and research. In US or any country in EU, the Union are very strong, powerful and independence from the enterprise. But I wonder if the Union president is a Director, what will going on? Is that exist in US or EU or the other country?  Actually, The Director of the company or The Director of Human Resources become the Union president is not true and it break the Union laws in Viet Nam, but if they do really well, the employees are very satisfied with the current union; the policy regime is extremely good for workers. How do you think about it? In fact, many companies, enterprises in Ho Chi Minh city and even in Viet Nam,  the Union president is appointed by the employer. They cooperate with each other, operating under the trade union laws and take very good care for employees. The superior trade union know that and still allow them to do that, because it is good for the employees at the company...

Ho Chi Minh, 11pm, 19/11/2016 I was really surprised when I checked e-mail this morning, actually it was a shock to me. I have just thought that the TPP really good for many country, specially is VietNam, but, the more I learn, the more I'll see these difficulties as well as the advantages about TPP. For example: Here is just a mall things I know from Tim Canova, He said that: If passed, the TPP would outsource millions of our service jobs, raised prescription drug prices. endangered the open internet, and undermined our food safety, health and environmental protections. Long before I took on Wasserman Schultz, I was a law professor speaking out against the corporate trade agenda – the so-called Washington-Wall Street Consensus that gave us NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement), permanent normal trade relations with the People’s Republic of China and other repressive regimes, and now the TPP.  In the next week, Progress For All will be sponsoring a major public forum ...

Ho CHi Minh City,19/11/2016. How TPP impact on VietNam in some days later, may be farewell to TPP. We study alot about how difficults when VietNam has free union in TPP, but, Trump won, and TPP with VietNam may be no chance.  So I wonder what will going on next, I would like to receive your comment about how TPP impact on VietNam with Trump. Mrs. Helena Worthen sai that: " In the meantime, “congratulations” on a new president is not exactly right….”condolences” is better.  How will this affect TPP? We don’t know yet. Trump campaigned on the basis of being anti-TPP, but he tells lies all the time and changes his mind whenever the wind blows from a different direction. TPP is good for big business  in the US — it is good for corporations. It is good for corporations because it encourages work to get sent out to low-wage countries, but more important is the way it allows corporations to sue governments to recover “lost profits.”  Seriously, this means that if...

On 07/01/2016, the tax of suppercars in Viet Nam will increase too high, about 150% ~ 30 billion VN DONG. So the question is: what is the purpose of joining TPP... while the tax still too high !!! 83 billion VNDONG have to pay to buy Rolls-Royce Phantom EWB With this money, giants of abroad could buy the other limit suppercars of the world, such as: Lykan HyperSport + Ferrari F12 LaFerrari + Rolls-Royce Phantom Series II EWB Bugatti Veyron SuperSport + Lamborghini Aventador Maybach Landaulet + Koenigsegg Agera R McLaren P1 + Porsche 918 Spyder You could view more here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQov9uQLZaA

The post of Phat Nguyen: Labor Relations And Union: "The Ethnic Workers Meeting" On April 24th, the Labor Federation of HCMC in collaboration with Committee for Ethnic Affairs (CEMA) held a meeting and presented gifts to 200 workers from ethnic local Khmer, Tay, Cham, Hoa people ... at the Labor Cultures Palace of HCMC. Attending the meeting, Ms. Tran Kim Yen, president of the Labor Federation of  HCMC. This is one of the activities within the framework of "Month of Workers' organized by the Labor Federation of HCMC   to promote the role of unions in taking care of the material life and spiritual life to workers. Ms. Tran Kim Yen is giving a talk, exhortating ethinic workers At the meeting, the workers were engaged gameshow, singing, listening to the propaganda skits election  XIV National Assembly deputies and People's Council deputies at all levels for the period 2016-2021; contest "Singing workers, officers". The Labor Federation of HCMC...

The first time in Viet Nam, over 1000 employees striked to establish local union at factory. On 11/4/2016, at Bluecom Vina company(Korean Company with over 1.400 employees) in Hai Phong province, The employees striked because the company did not establish union to protect the legitimate rights and interests of the employees. Some reasons lead to wildcat strike : The employees had to work overtime to much, from 8.00 am to 22.00 pm without having good conditions at work. The employees wanted to have more days off: 2 days on saturday, to increase the number of day off from 4 days to 6 days a month. The solutions of the company : On 11/4 evening, the company had established local union. The company would supported vehicle deposit about 450.000 dong a month but they would cut down diligence money from 200.000 VNdong to 100.000 VNdong. The company did not agree with increasing more 2 days off. Up to now, the employees still stop working. Source: vnexpress.net ---------...

How to get a job as an union officials in your country? 1. By choice? 2. Apply for a job? 3. Because of the experience should be recruited? 4. Have some relationships? 5. Several others I really want to know??? ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Trong Nghia TDTU http://trongnghia1300057.blogspot.com/

Some reasons let to strikes in Viet Nam Strike seem to occur due to employers not complying with the labor law and infringing on worker's rights. In recent years, the main reasons for strikes tend to be conflicts over interesrs (70%), The workers are demanding higher wage increase and better working conditions. The question is: why are they all wildcat strikes? In the market economy, conflicts between the interests of employers and worker are inevitable. The workers are always want to improve their working conditions, increase income, while employers are must focus more on increasing productivity, cost cutting, etc. The conflict of interests between workers and employers does not have to lead to a strike if direct dialogue and collective bargaining take place regularly and two-way communication is effective applied. Wildcat strikes happen mainly when communication, dialogue and negotiation mechanism are not working effectively. The ILO estimates that perhaps 90% of the wildc...

Learning about Unions in English at Tôn Đức Thắng University, Việt Nam exist many difficulties. In the context of global cooperation, TPP is in the process of negotiations. It's very hard to know exactly how TPP will affect laborers in Vietnam. Learning about  union in English becomes very difficult, because we do not have any specialized English dictionaries to study, access and research union organizations of the world. We just have one teacher, Mrs Vinh , who teach us in English. Currently, the Labor and trade union departments at Tôn Đức Thắng University have only 4 teachers and over 500 students who study in English. Their areas of study are: Organizational behavior Personality psychology Social benefits and compensation The Art of Leadership Vietnam laws and stipulations of trade unions Labor and trade union overview Bargaining skills between unions and employers Social Insurance Labor relation strategy Cross culture management Labor law Labor c...

Ho Chi Minh city, 2/4/2016 Last night, I had a wonderful time with: Katie Quan-a senior labor specialist at the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education; Murray Gregor-teacher come from Canada-work for ILO right now; Vy and An. We enjoyed dinner, coffee at Union's Coffee shop and talked about how to learn Union at   Ton Duc Thang University , TPP, Strike, Labor Relation in the US, Canada and also VietNam. We also considered with the master's program at the University of Massachusetts, Rutgers University, San Fransisco State University, Cornell University, Michigan State University... Murray Gregor introduced to me a wonderful website with more than a thousand conferences by different experts on Labor Relation issues, It is:  http://www.crimt.org/ The website of his School of Industrial Relations:  http://en.eri.umontreal.ca/our-school/summer-school/ Katie Quan talked about her job, her Research Articles in China next time... That was very...

As a trade union member - Gains and Losses Vietnam's trade union is lead by the VietNam Generation Confederation of  Labor - an independent trade union lead by the Party But the unions of the companies and enterprises depend  largely on business. Unions in VietNam receive salaries from company directors to defend and protect the rights and legitimate interests of legitimate workers. This is different from Unions around the world So how does this affect me, a student studying and hoping to pursue a career in labor relations and union? Currently Vietnam has only two schools that offer a bachelors degree in unions, they are: 1. Union University in Hanoi 2. Ton Duc Thang University - Faculty of Labor Relations and Trade Union More than 500 students are studying union at Ton Duc Thang University. Despite plentiful employment opportunities available to these students, they must meet high qualifications in order to enter the work force. Working for private ent...

How difficult is freedom of establishment and operation of trade unions in capitalist society?   I've seen a lot of forum posts and listened to professionals share many difficulties about unions in the United States.   For example:   Negotiations to sign collective bargaining in the United States can last longer than 5 years to successfully sign. However, in Vietnam, the statutory prescribed time to signed a collective labor agreement is very clear (about 1 month) bringing many benefits to the laborers. So, what benefits do freedom of establishment and operation of trade unions in capitalist countries bring to employees? I always want to know more and more!!! Cao Nghĩa TDTU

Nowadays, it’s very uncommon that workers have a balanced meal at work in Vietnam. The qualify of the meal often does not supply enough nutrition to fuel the labor power of workers. This is one of the  reasons why many workers go on strike for improved meals, but largely it still not been resolved. Currently, “quality meals” are only included in the labor contracts of between 15 and 20 thousand workers in the country. This often includes a little savory soup with rice. Sometimes they also include a few thin slices of meat or a small amount of fried fish ... So the question arises as to the quality of such shift meal can reconstruct data is labor-workers or not? There have been many cases where leaders (managers or worker leaders)  listen to workers complained about their meal and share the difficulties of the meal with them. But too often, the leadership does not have pity. When workers eat stale rancid food how can they continue working? This shows that the amoun...

Female employees in foreign countries: Disadvantaged Up to now, there are 500.00 female employees work in 40 countries around the world, the proportion of female employees is about 30%-35% and they are underpaided and not to be protected by local law. The reasons: 1. The labor export companies(200) do not provide sufficient information to the employees: + They just provide the good informations + They do not provide the hazards/risks in the foreign countries 2. The policy of some countries + Directors cac terminate the labor contract labor for pregnant women(in Japan)  3. The worker with low skill levels + Female employees are not to be trained skills labor before + Female employees subject to the now poverty reduction should go abroad Facing many risks: 1. Women workers vulnerable to seduction 2. Female employees sexually abused 3. Female employees are exploited labor So the solutions: 1. Need to create better conditions for women io exercise th...

Not enough votes for TPP trade deal... House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, said Thursday that the landmark  Trans-Pacific Partnership  trade deal doesn't have enough votes to pass Congress right now. "I don't think the votes are there right now because of the concerns about what's in the TPP," Ryan told reporters at his weekly press conference. "The point is we shouldn't bring something up if we're not confident that we have the support there for it so I think the president and the administration has a lot more work to do to get support for this document because there are some legitimate concerns about it. "TPP has great potential," Ryan told the Wall Street Journal CEO Council in October, "but we want to scrub this trade agreement to make sure that it reaches and meets the standards that we call for in TPA." Its too Hard :(  Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/speaker-ryan-not-enough-votes-for-tpp-trade-deal/

The Biggest Strike in 2016 at Pouchen Company. On 27/2/2016, over 17.000 people of Pouchen Company (Taiwan Company in Viet Nam: Nike shoe) strike because: The Company implementation of " effective management policies on work ". The company will classified the employees into A B C D , the highest point is 100 point. If the employees breaking the rule, they will be cut down the wages, but the employees don't agree with this policies , so They strike The employees stopped to work in 3 day and came to the main street to strike . Some pictures: The results : The Federation of Labour of Dong Nai province intervene and The company agree to removed this policies and compensate the wage in 3 days for the employees. So: What do you think about this Strike, Please leave a comment about this problem to let me know what is different between US, another country and VietNam about the Strike. Thanks you so much! Cao Nghia TDTU

SEMINAR: “THE IMPACT OF TPP ON LABOUR AND TRADE UNIONS” Morning of 14/01/2016, Ton Duc Thang University hosted the seminar “The impact of TPP on labour and trade unions”. Featuring participation by Mr. Dang Trung Dung, Deputy Director of the VGCL International Department; Ms. Nguyen Thi Hai Yen, representative of ILO Vietnam; experts, scientists, professors and researchers in Labour Relations from institutes, confederations of labour and universities inside and outside Vietna m. Mr. Kent Wong, Director of the UCLA Labor Center, was the keynote speaker at the seminar. Participants of the seminar had the opportunities to learn about labour and trade unions issues relating to the TPP, its impact on Vietnam labour and trade unions, as well as the experiences on international trade unions activities of TPP participating countries. Some Pictures: Source: http://increti.tdt.edu.vn/ Cao Nghia TDTU