Kelvin Cao

On 19,22/11/2016, The Faculty of Labor Relations and Trade Union of Ton Duc Thang University organized two International Conferences: Seminar on labor relations of the countries in the world and Seminar on methods for resolving labor disputes of the countries in the world.  The seminar was organized by two experts from canada: Professor  Allen Ponak:  University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon SK, Canada (2012-2015), is the arbitrator of the organization National Academy of Arbitrators;  Professor  Daphne Taras:  Dean Edwards School of Business, University of Saskatchewan, Canada. At the conference, we learned the situation of Labor Relations in Canada and some countries in EU; the issues relating to labor arbitration ... We worked together to address the real situation on labor arbitration, students debated on issues related to the rights and obligations of unions, the director, the decision of the arbitrator... ...

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...

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/

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 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...

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