Based on conference presentations
by Seguna Papachan
Persatuan Sahabat Wanita
THE world's leading electronics companies began investing in Malaysia in the 1970s. The government responded by banning unionisation in electronics firms. It rescinded labour laws that restricted night work for women, enabling the factories to operate 24 hours a day. And refused to set minimum wage standards.
NGOs have been active in Malaysia's EPZs since 1985, when retrenchments started to take place. The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC), a moderate trade union centre, has attempted to organise EPZ workers. Yet its organising has been relatively ineffective since women have not been integrated into the union's agenda or organising strategy.
There is a general belief among zone workers that no unions can be formed. But they do not realise that the Woodard Textile Mills and Plaat factories in the Bayan Lepas area are unionised. Moreover, there are progressive in house unions in other factories.
Organising Malaysia's EPZ workers is difficult. In 1985, when workers went on strike to protest massive layoffs, the police crushed the workers' actions. Besides govemment repression, other factors add to the diffculty in organising Malaysian EPZ workers.
High tumover (15%-20% resig nations per year) make it difficult to build a nucleus of union supporters. The young workers, who are mainly from rural areas, are delighted to be earning money and to be independent of their families. Most see their employers as benefactors rather than exploiters. Finally, the biggest tragedy is that there is little coordination between the trade union centres and NCOs in challenging industrial poli cies and their effects.
The companies operating in Malaysia's EPZs enjoy generous incentives. As per the Free Trade Zone Act of 1971, investors receive tax breaks, full or par tial exemptions from relevant laws and regulations, and low rentals and subsidised rates for the use of public amenities. There are no restrictions on their reparation of profits or on their imports.
Women now form 88 percent of the textile workforce and 85 percent of the workforce in electronics. Most of the women workers in the EPZs are young and from poor agricultural families. The government's New Economic Policy (NEP), launched in 1970, targeted Malay women, who are mostly Muslim.
Recruiting teams go into the villages to recruit the young women. While their jobs in the EPZs "liberate" them from their families and strict guidance, their wages and the skills that they learn do not provide them with an avenue of social mobility. In their new jobs, the workers encounter new challenges of a new urban lifestyle and intensive work rules. Their shift work makes it hard for them to integrate socially in their new communi ties. They also confront hostility and contempt from neighbours who are sus picious of their supposedly "loose morals" and low social status.
Though the physical environment ofthe electronics factory is superficially attractive, the psychological conditions are extremely taxing. The dull monotony of assembly work is combined with a stressful dailyquotawhich is enforcedby scrupulous line supervisors.
Mass hysteria was a common occurrence among the first generation of EPZ workers in the 1970s. Confronted with cultural dislocation, social isola tion, job insecurity, competitive assembly-line work, and exposure to toxic chemicals, these workers had a difficult time coping. The second generation is adapting better to the stress, but health and safety problems are still common.
The clean image of high-tech production and air-conditioned facilities are deceiving. Hazardous chemicals are used during the manufacturing process. Meanwhile, workers are not informed about the chemicals they are using. Sahabat Wanita, which works extensively with electronics workers, has documented cases of workers who are sent home to their villages to die without any explanation or compensation for their medical complications.
EXPORT PROCESSING ZONES
Additional EPZs are being planned in Sejingkat (Sarawak), Padang Beaser (Perlis), Jawi (Penang), Bukit Minyak (Penang), and Sabah (Selangor).
WAGES
US$148/mo(newworkers)
US$370/mo(longtimeworkers: 10 1 yrs)
(Source: Sahebat Wanita)
POPULATION
19.5million
LABOUR FORCE
7.5 million (40.1% of population) (1993)
EPZ WORKERS
150,000
EPZ EMPLOYMENT
2.1% (oftotalemployment)
UNIONISATION IN EPZs
10 - 15%
UNIONISATION OUTSIDE EPZs
10%
ECONQMIC GROWTH
8.7% (1 994)
PER CAPITA GDP (PPP)
US$8,630
INFLATION RATE (CPI)
3.7% (1 994)
THE Malaysian government announced in 1988 that it would lift a 15-year ban against unionisation of~electronics workers. A month laterj the newly formed National Union of Electronic Workers (NEW) registered as a trade union.
Once a number of multinational companies expressed their opposition to NEW it became apparent that the government was not prepared to allow workers to form independent trade unions.
While the government was stonewalling on NEW's application for registration, workers at an RCA electronics factory in the Ulu Kelang Free Trade Zone decided toforman in-houseunion. In-house unions were legally permitted at the time.
The RCA workers were preparing to fight against antidpated retrenchments by the Americanowned Harris Corporation, which had just bought the factory. The union, renamed HSSM (Harris Solid State Malaysia) Worker's Union after the company changed its named, was the first electronic workes' union in Malaysia.
Despite intimidation and a series of ploys by the company to evade unionisation, unionists obtained a majority of workers' votes. But a year after the 2,700 member union was formed, the company tried again to render it ineffective.
HSSM workers' received let ters of transfer to a sister company, Harris Advanced Technology (HAT). Meanwhile the secretary of the union, Mohamad Jaafar, the entire executive councill and a number of key member were left behind in the abandoned Harris building.
The 24 unionists continued to work, without machines, for five months until the company announced that it was going to close the HSSM plant.
The union fought back. It filed a case of wrongful dismissal in the Industrial Relations Court. But after four years of litigation, the court dismissed the Harris workers' claim for reinstatement.
The union is pursuing its legal fight by appealing the Industrial Court's decision. The terminated workers invested 6 years battling for unionisation. Unable to wait any longer, a number of them found employment elsewhere.
(Source, The Sun Magazine, 22 September 1994)