The International Labor Movement as an agent of change: Temporary Foreign Workers and Union Renewal in Asia

Ford, Michele

doi:10.11606/0103-2070.ts.2021.181586

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DOSSIER - TRANSNATIONAL LABOR STRUGGLES AND POLITICAL REPERTOIRES • Tempo soc. 33 (2) • May-Aug 2021 • https://doi.org/10.11606/0103-2070.ts.2021.181586 copy

The International Labor Movement as an agent of change: Temporary Foreign Workers and Union Renewal in Asia

O Movimento Sindical Internacional como um agente da mudança: trabalhadores estrangeiros temporários e renovação sindical na Ásia

Authorship SCIMAGO INSTITUTIONS RANKINGS

Abstract

This paper analyses the role of the Global Union Federations (GUFs) and Solidarity Support Organizations (SSOs) have played in Asian unions’ attempts to reach out to temporary foreign workers, drawing on ten years of qualitative fieldwork with the GUFs at headquarters and regional level and with their affiliates in the seven Asian countries that rely most heavily on temporary labor migration. Union renewal and revitalization are seen as side-effects of that focus, as new constituencies are able to shore up membership and bring new ideas and perspectives into the movement.

Keywords:
Temporary workers; Global Union Federations; Unionism in Southeast Asia; Union revitalization

INDICATOR (MILLIONS)	Hong Kong	Japan	Malaysia*	Singapore	South Korea	Taiwan	thailand
Population	7.5	126.3	31.9	5.7	51.7	23.6	69.6
Labour Force	4.0	68.1	15.7	5.7	28.4	11.9	39.0
Temporary Labor Migrants	0.4	0.2	1.7	1.2	0.1	0.7	2.8

Departamento de Sociologia da Faculdade de Filosofia, Letras e Ciências Humanas da Universidade de São Paulo Av. Prof. Luciano Gualberto, 315, 05508-010, São Paulo - SP, Brasil - São Paulo - SP - Brazil
E-mail: temposoc@edu.usp.br

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[1] MICHELE FORD is professor of Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia. Her research focuses labour and other social movements in Southeast Asia. She is the coauthor of Labor and politics in Indonesia (Cambridge, 2020) and the author of From migrant to worker: Global unions and temporary labor migration in Asia (Cornell ILR Press, 2019), and Workers and intellectuals: NGOs, trade unions and the Indonesian labour movement (NUS/ Hawaii/KITLV, 2009). She is also the editor of Social Ativism in Southeast Asia (Routledge, 2013) and co-editor of several volumes including Activists in transition: Progressive politics in democratic Indonesia (Cornell Seap, 2019) and Beyond oligarchy; Wealth, power, and contemporary Indonesian politics (Cornell Seap, 2014). E-mail: michele.ford@sydney.edu.au.