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                           ...

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 ---------...

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...

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...

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

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