“Vietnam prepares to begin a new chapter in labour organizing”, 07 September

January 2021 will see … a New Labour Code … [which] allows, for the first time, “worker representative organisations at the enterprise level” ... not affiliated with the state-led Vietnam General Confederation of Labour (VGCL).

The VGCL retains the privilege of being the only legal union federation in the country, and the Labour Code says that if WROs want to become unions, they can affiliate to the VGCL and will then be legislated by the Trade Union Law. Nevertheless, allowing WROs represents a significant legal change…

The VGCL is often dismissed as a tool of the Communist Party, useless when it comes to protecting workers’ rights and interests….

The VIU … says that it wants to establish independent unions. It also says, however, that it wants a constructive relationship with the VGCL, and hopes they can work together to protect the rights and interests of workers and fulfil the labour obligations of Free Trade Agreements...

… While strikes are legal, launching one requires workers to follow a complex set of bureaucratic procedures, including the condition that it is led by the VGCL. This has never happened. Every strike is technically an illegal, wildcat strike…

The impact that WROs will have for workers is as yet unknown. There are a few possibilities. Workers could totally ignore them… WROs could become a way of co-opting and institutionalising worker grievances without … real gains for labour. A third possibility is that WROs do become effective ways for workers to make demands on employers, or that they lead to further freedom of association reforms…