Kelvin Cao

As a senior, I have learned a lot about Vietnam's Trade Union, I see the biggest existence of trade unions today are: 1: The shortage of specialized union members The majority of the union members officials today are experienced workers to do union president facility. They are not yet fully equipped with specialized knowledge of trade unions. 2. The local trade union activities are not really effective. Local trade union also undertook too many administrative procedures are not necessary, not to focus on their main tasks which protect the legitimate rights and interests of the workers. 3. The local trade union depends too much on the leadership of the company and get paid directly from the company's leadership.                                  The chart shows the difficulties of the unions at locals                           ...

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...

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/

4 phases to successful negotiation in Viet Nam: 1. Preparation phase of CBA Enterprise Union Executive Board work by themself Enterprise Union Executive Board decides to seek help from the district to come and lead union negotiation team. + Discuss and prioritize workers' demands, make a list of prioritized demands + Management Negotiation Team discusses and prioritizes management's concerns and demands 2. Negotiation phase of CBA Meeting to agree on some ground rule for the negotiations defining an issue and sharing interests. Ground Rues: + Negotiations are voluntary, and parties can agree to any solution that satisfies interests as long as they are not prohibited by law + Both parties shall be represented by representatives authorized to make decisions on behalf of their respective sides + Either side has right to call for a caucus to discus an issue in private + All negotiation team members will be paid by the company for time spent in negotiations + The CBA mu...

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...

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...

Nowadays, it’s very difficult to balance the meals for workers. The quality of the meal  is not high enough and does not provide enough nutrition to replenish the labor power of workers. That is why a lot of workers for the company went on strike for improved meals, but the issue is still not resolved. Currently, only about 15 thousand to 20 thousand Vietnamese dong on average, are spent on each worker’s meal, which may provide for a little soup with rice. Sometimes meals consist only of a few thin slices of meat or a small fried fish ... So the question that arises as to the shift in the quality of meals is whether higher quality food will increase the amount of labor produced by each worker ? There have been cases where leaders listened to workers who complained about their meal and went down to have lunch with the workers in other to share in the experience of their difficulties. However, if the leadership thinks the stale food smells rancid, how could leadership expect wor...

Continuing the series of articles about strikes, today I will write about  the recent strike situation in Vietnam. 1.      Total number of strikes + In 2008: There were 762 strikes but in 2014 there were only 303 strikes + Number of strikes in 2014:           FDI : 68%           State enterprises: 31.167%          Enterprises to freely: 0.33% + Number of Strikes in Foreign-Invested Firms + Strikes by industry in 2014          Garment                    114      Because there are a lot of garment factories in Vietnam and many foreign companies have started producing here, there were many changes in the recent ly           Footwear industry    54 This is one of the main industr...

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...

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

Viet Nam’s entry into TPP may be delayed if reform is not available. In 2008, there were 1020 wildcat strikes. Right now, collective disputes usually turn into wildcats. A committee of government, VGCL, MOLISA comes in and gets a result. But this is a very sensitive area. Three potential types of organizing might take place: The VGCL reforms quickly and develops a range of unions and representational processes; Some international unions and others outside Viet Nam present themselves and offer alternatives; Some employers may set up private unions which will block the organizing of new unions. 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