On Friday, November 17, the Gina Relations Workers Union (GRWU) met with representatives of the Clover Group, owners of the Gina Form Bra Factory in Bangkok, Thailand. Representatives from The Limited (makers of Victoria�s Secret brand lingerie and buyers from the Gina factory) also attended. Gina workers have been fighting to keep their unionized factory open after receiving word in early September that the Clover Group was going to close the factory and shift orders to China or Cambodia. After lengthy negotiations, The Clover Group agreed to pay all outstanding bonuses and legally required severance pay and approximately three-and-a-half months additional salary above the legal minimum severance pay for each worker. The package, worth approximately $1.6 million US Dollar, is an exceptional agreement in a country where even legal obligations are routinely ignored when factories close. It is the hope of the union that this settlement will set a positive precedent.

Mizzima

By Ko Dee

November 27, 2006 - For the first time Burmese labour rights activists highlighted the deteriorating rights situation of Burmese workers, especially that of Burmese women workers, at a conference o­n Asian Women held in Kuala Lumpur today. The Committee for Burmese Workers in Malaysia (CBWM) today intervened at a conference organized by the Committee for Asian Women and highlighted the worsening situation of Burmese workers both inside and abroad.Ko Latt, President of the CBWM said, "We were able to highlight how the rights of Burmese migrants are being abused."

Labour Resource Centre (LRC)

Alvin Yap24 Nov 2006

The impact of trade liberalisation and globalisation in Asia is seeing more women being discriminated against and mistreated in their workplace, says a conference of women workers group in Kuala Lumpur today.They are also labelled as human capital in the production of goods and services in a labour market which is increasing becoming informal and women workers are abused and discriminated against.

"Women in Malaysia are meeting the labour shortage and this term used in the Ninth Malaysia Plan and the World Bank is incorrect. We are not 'human capital'. Women workers must be seen as people and not human capital in globalisation," said Tenaganita director Irene Fernandez at the Committee for Asian Women (CAW) regional conference.

Friday November 24, 2006

KUALA LUMPUR: Globalization is increasingly eroding the rights of Asia's working women, who are falling victim to weaker legal protection, gender prejudices and poor working conditions, a women's group said Friday. Women are seen as "dispensable labour,'' and because they are not regarded as the breadwinner, are often the first to be laid off, said the Committee for Asian Women, a regional rights body of 39 groups representing female workers in Asia. Although women make up more than half the work force in Asia, "this has not led to more empowerment for women at work or at home,'' CAW chairman, Jurgette Honculada, said at the opening of a four-day conference in Kuala Lumpur o­n Asia's working women. She said foreign direct investment into Asian countries in the past 20 years has promoted labor-intensive industrialization, with a "feminization'' of labor as women have predominantly filled the low-income jobs. In South Asian and Mekong countries, an increasing trend to hire women in "informal'' positions as contract workers or temporary staff has seen a decline in social security protection for working women, Honculada said. "In many Asian countries, growing unemployment and the trend towards the shrinking of the formal labor force in favor of an informal labor force has resulted in a significant loss of labor movement membership. All these threaten worker rights and weaken the bargaining power of workers,'' she said. CAW aims "to create a voice for women workers in Asia,'' coordinating officer Lucia Jayaseelan told reporters. "We want to use all our resources to build trade union movements.'' Some 90 delegates from 13 countries are attending the conference to discuss the rights of women workers, security and livelihood, working conditions for migrant women workers, and the situation of women in the work force in fundamentalist and autocratic regimes in Asia.
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