WHY WERE WE IN VIETNAM?
with the devastation of unrestricted international commerce. All
the protections of our collective
bargaining agreements will be
worthless if we do not
internationalize our work.
Why Were We In
Vietnam?
JOHN GRANT
Secretary-Treasurer
IKEA, H&M, Zara, ALDI, and
El Super—foreign retail
corporations doing business in
our communities.
Smithfield Pork, Budweiser beer,
Alka-Seltzer antacid, Purina dog
food and French’s Mustard—all
foreign-owned products sold in
our markets.
(3)
Our Union, the UFCW, has been
at the forefront of this movement.
In South Africa, we allied with
the retail Union there to cure
Walmart’s attempt to pillage the
retail work force. We argued
before the highest courts in that
country and won! Similar
campaigns and victories have
been realized in India, Brazil and
Scandinavia, amongst others.
And to be effective, it is also
important to be active on
international policy issues. The
UFCW has vigorously opposed
the Trans-Pacific Partnership
(TPP). One of the issues that
U.S. Labor has raised is that the
provisions of the Agreement
regarding the promise and then
protection of the freedom of
association and the right to
collective bargaining need to be
effectively monitored and
enforced. The current language
fails in that regard.
But this is nothing we don’t know.
Globalization of the world
economy is an accepted fact. The
internationalization of commerce,
the United States’ trade policies,
currency changes, changing digital
communications—this all affects
our work. And any American
Trade Union that fails to recognize
this, and act on behalf of its
members, is dangerously dwelling
in a long past era.
Vietnam, one of only 12 Pacific
Rim countries participating in
TPP (along with the U.S.), has
been in the center of that
discussion, due to the unique
structure of its Labor Federation.
The worldwide labor movement,
which has responded to this
globalization, has attempted to
build real, meaningful and
sustaining coalitions to grapple
In January of this year, thirteen
labor leaders and educators
visited Vietnam to build solidarity
with unions and workers from
both countries. President Icaza,
Issue 1
THE VOICE
Political and Legislative
Representative Nam Le and
myself represented the UFCW.
Other Unions present hailed from
Service Employees International
Union, the American Federation
of Teachers, the LA, Orange and
San Diego Labor Councils. This
is only the second official US
Trade Union delegation to
Vietnam. Then International
UFCW President Joe Hansen led
the first. Most senior International
Union Vice-President Icaza
anchored this group.
The delegation participated in the
very first seminar between the
U.S. and Vietnamese Labor leaders and scholars to discuss the
TPP. It was held at Ton Duc Thang
University, the Vietnamese labor
college located in Ho Chi Minh
City (Saigon).
The delegation also met with the
national leadership of the
Vietnam General Confederation
of Labor, the International Labor
Organization (ILO) the Ho Chi
Minh City Labor Federation, the
Vietnam Trade Union University,
the Women’s Academy of
Vietnam and two unionized
factories.
It was important to articulate our
concerns to the leading Trade
Union Officers we met with, in
the hope that we can move closer
together and create a mutually
beneficial engagement on behalf
of our respective members.
The bottom line is that if the TPP
is ratified—which is less than
assured as we fight to prevent it ➚
March 2016