Ladies and Gentlemen, Good morning, First and foremost, I would like to thank our gracious host, the Honorable MarianneVind for bringingall of us from all over the world together in this room.
I also would like to thank Members of Parliament, International Organisations and distinguished guests whose presence in this room and online speaks volume about our shared passion for making EVFTA better. Je suis Huy Nguyen,un membre de l'organisation des Defenseurs des Travailleurs du Vietnam. Vietnam Worker Defenders is a civil society organisation comprised of like-minded individuals from all over the globe who are concerned about the welfare of workers and the freedom of civil society activists.
As a member of the US chapter of Vietnam WorkerDefenders, I have front row view of the challenges facing workers trying to organize, even in a country where unions have been a partof people's lives for generations. The historic labour victory at the Amazon warehouse buoyed hope of organizers everywhere but I also saw major employers bring out harsh anti-union tactics going as far as firing pro-union workers and shuttering workplaces.
Even with the government ready to lend a helping hand, organizing a union in America,or Western Europefor that matter,has never been a walk in the park. In the two years since EVFTA came into force,not one soul dares to organize a union in Vietnam. The reasons lie in two key differences between our labour environment here and the one in Vietnam:
The first difference is that the vast majority of workers in Vietnam lack a basic understanding of their rights at the workplace and so live in constant fear of losing their jobs. To remediatethe situation, VWD have createdsocial media portals to inform workers of their rights, have set up a channel to provide legal guidance to workers and have instilled in workers who aspire to organise the knowledge about international labour laws.
The second difference is that the Vietnam government has been using its LabourCode to erect barriers, creating insurmountable challenges to potential union organisers. Vietnam's ratification of the Free Trade Agreement included with it a commitment to implement ILO Conventions, yet when Vietnam's Labour Code became effective in Jan of 2021, it contained articles that blatantly violated ILO Conventions;
Let us go througha few of them: 1) An authorised state agency must issue the registration before a workers' organisation is established and can legallyoperate (article 172.1). 2) The Government shall regulate the registration dossier,sequence and procedures; the authorisation and procedures for issuing and revoking registration; (article 172.4). 3) When registering, the workers’ organisation must have the minimum number ofmembers as stipulated by the Government (article 173.1). Just those three articles alone are enough to cause major consternation to any plan to organize especially when none of the required information and criteria for approval have ever been made available or disclosed by the authorities. 4) Let us go through a hypothetical scenario, in which an independent union was somehow legally formed and leads the collective bargaining effort. When the negotiations reach a deadlock, the labour mediator or the arbitration team gets involved. The labour mediator is appointed by the government; two thirds of the arbitration team are appointed by the government and its affiliate, the remaining third appointed by employers. So, when negotiations
hit an impasse and mediationis called upon, the deck is stacked against independent union members getting a fair ruling. We believe that the Labour Code needsa generational changeto adapt to twenty-first century laws and norms so the country can proudly join the world community and protect its workers.
At this point, let'sshift our focus to the implementation of EVFTA, namely the chapter on Tradeand Sustainable Development which stipulates that each party forms its own Domestic Advisory Group which will work with the other party's DAG to come up with recommendations.
Vietnam, however, has a different agenda and instead of giving civil society organisations time and space for cooperation and dialogue, Vietnam uses the DAG framework as a corruptmechanism to pursue its own goals.
In July of 2021, the Security Police in Hanoi announced the arrest of two prominent civil society activists whose organisations applied to be part of Vietnam's DAG. Soon thereafter, Vietnam produced its DAG made up of threemembers, two of which are under the control of the state. In January of 2022, three additional members were added, with one suspected of lacking independence. In that same month, journalist Mai Phan Loi was sentenced to four years and lawyer Dang Dinh Bach to five years in prison on charges of tax violations.
VWD respectfully submit to EU officials the following requests: - Please nudge EU corporations to create conditions favorable for the formation of trade unions at their facilities in Vietnam. - Please consider VWD for membership in the EU DAG sincewe are confident we can contribute positively to the process. - Demand that Vietnamreconstitutes its DAG so membersare verifiably independent civil society organisations. - Demand Vietnam to unconditionally release activists convicted on trumped-up charges. The sense of urgency in this matter is even more pronounced given that the many imprisoned activists were maltreated, have been deniedlegal representation, deniedadequate medical care, denied family visits while subjected to punitive prison transfers. Journalist Do Cong Duong died while serving his sentence from being denied proper medical care.
With all the disingenuous activities going on, there is one encouraging development worth looking forwardto; late last year, the US Deputy Undersecretary of Labor for International Affairs {Thea Lee} visited Vietnam to resume a dialogue on labor issues. Additionally, the newly appointed US Labor Attache {Chad Salitan} has been pushing Vietnam to draft a long-delayed decree that will permit the formation of worker representative organizations outside the control of the Communist Party.
VWD suggeststhat we join force with such like-minded allies to make 2023 the year we bring Vietnam fully onboard per the provisions of EVFTA, make Vietnam compliant with ILO conventions, and watch independent trade unions emerge from our collective effort.
Ladies and gentlemen I would like to mention that we at VWD have compiled this document that goes into greater detailsto support the information we distributed earlier. If you are interested, please scan the code or provide us with your email and we will email a copy to you.
Next, we would like you to hear a testimony from a workerin Vietnam.
{Testimony from worker in Vietnam with audio and video translation}
As you can see, the testimonypaints quite a grim picture!
On a closing note, let us all keep in mind a motto that served President Reagan so well as he uttered the words: "Trust but verify!"
Thank you, from all of us at VWD, for makingEVFTA better for the workers, for our planet and May God bless you.
Contact information:
Huy Nguyen Executive Director
Vietnam Worker Defenders Tel: +1 949 229 0306
email: nguyen.huy.vwd@gmail.com