Civil society

Emerging labour unions after industrial revolution

Labor unions began forming in the mid-19th century in response to the social and economic impact of the Industrial Revolution. Labor unions are legally recognized as representatives of workers in many industries. Their activity today centers on collective bargaining over wages, benefits, and working conditions for their members, and on representing their members in disputes with management over violations of contract provisions. Labor or trade unions, as a specific socially-determined organizational form, identify themselves with, or seek to prosecute, the class struggle. Larger unions also typically engage in lobbying activities and electioneering at the state and federal level. Reacting to the globalization and regardless of the actual impact of market integration on union density or on workers themselves, organized labor has been engaged in a variety of strategies to limit the agenda of globalization and to promote labor regulations in an international context.

Sources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labor_unions_in_the_United_States

Nowadays case of Burma

Currently existing International Labour Organisation (ILO) developed a programme to promote and support the new freedom of association rights which includes an awareness raising campaign with education and advice for workers, government officials and employers. The past year has seen the birth of a new union movement in Burma (Myanmar), after 50 years of brutal suppression of labour rights. More than 670 labour organisations have now been registered under the Labour Organisation Law, mostly small unions at enterprise level and concentrated in the agricultural, manufacturing and transport sectors, and with an estimated total membership of close to 200,000 workers. Given the history of oppression and the continuing hostility from many employers, this is a remarkable achievement, and reflects the determination of workers to exercise their new rights to associate, organise and negotiate. Many of them are young factory workers struggling to improve their wages and conditions of employment. Workers are becoming increasingly frustrated and angry. The risks have been highlighted by cases like the Taw Win Timber products case where the employer’s refusal to comply with reinstatement orders provoked consequential action by workers and the arrest of young leaders of the labour organisation. Despite the urgent need to strengthen the legal protection for workers and to introduce an enforceable good faith requirement to ensure collective bargaining can get some traction, the government has apparently decided to amend the law. In doing so it is effectively endorsing the status quo which is likely to move industrial relations towards the conflict model we have seen in other countries like Cambodia.

Sources

http://column.global-labour-university.org/2013/09/the-new-union-movement-in-myanmar.html