Trade Unions and Labour Movements in the Asia-Pacific Region

Trade unions and worker organisations throughout Asia are confronted by diverse challenges, like their Australian counterparts. These include declining density, diminished leverage under neoliberal labour market policies, coercive management practices, hostile governments and a growing insecure workforce. Despite these difficulties, there are signs of revitalisation among Asian labour movements, which in some countries has involved unions working with other civil society organisations to develop innovative strategies for representing workers.

This webinar examines how trade unions and worker organisations in various Asian countries have responded to these challenges. It considers the lessons for Australian unions and other organisations concerned with worker welfare from labour movement strategies in South Korea, China, Indonesia and Vietnam. The webinar features presentations from leading experts who have contributed to Trade Unions and Labour Movements in the Asia-Pacific Region, a new book published by Routledge and co-edited by Byoung-Hoon Lee (Chung-Ang University), Ng Sek-Hong (University of Hong Kong) and Russell Lansbury (University of Sydney).

Speakers

• Professor Russell Lansbury (The University of Sydney Business School)
  Russell Lansbury is Emeritus Professor of Work and Industrial Relations at the University of Sydney where is a former Associate Dean (Research) in the Business School. He holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and has been a Senior Fulbright Scholar at MIT and Harvard University. He is a past president of the International Labour and Employment Relations Association. He is a joint editor of Trade Unions and Labour Movements in the Asia-Pacific Region (Routledge, 2020).
  He is the author of a forthcoming memoir: Crossing Boundaries: Work and Industrial Relations in Perspective (Routledge).

• Professor Fang Lee Cooke (Monash University)
  Fang Lee Cooke is Distinguished Professor at Monash Business School, Monash University, Australia. She holds a PhD from the University of Manchester. Her research interests include strategic HRM, knowledge management and innovation, and employment relations. Her latest publications include: Human Resource Management in China: New Trends and Practices (Routledge, 2012) and is joint editor of the seventh edition of International and Comparative Employment Relations (Sage, forthcoming).

• Professor Michele Ford (The University of Sydney)
  Michele Ford is Professor of Southeast Asian Studies and Director of the Sydney Southeast Asia Centre at the University of Sydney. Her research focuses on Southeast Asian labour movements, labour relations in global production networks and trade union aid. Her recent publications include: Labor and Politics in Indonesia. Cambridge University Press. 2020 (with Terri Caraway) and From Migrant to Worker: Global Unions and Temporary Labor Migration in Asia. Cornell ILR Press. 2019

• Associate Professor Ngan Collins (RMIT University)
  Ngan Collins is Associate Professor in the School of Management, RMIT University. She holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne. She is the author of Economic Reform and Employment Relations in. Vietnam (Routledge, 2009). Her latest publications include: N.Collins, S. Ren and M. Warner, M.(2019) The changing role of the state in industrial relations since Vietnam’s reform, Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources;  and  Y. Zhu,, S.Ren, N.Collins, and M. Warner (2018) Business Leaders, Leadership and Management in Asia, Routledge, London.

• Professor Bradon Ellem (The University of Sydney Business School)
  Bradon Ellem is Professor of Employment Relations at the University of Sydney Business School. He holds a PhD from the University of Wollongong (New South Wales). His publications include The Pilbara: From the Deserts Profits Come (UWA Publishing, 2017). More recently he  published  ‘Neoliberal Trajectories in Mining: Comparing Malmfälten and the Pilbara’, European Journal of Industrial Relations, 26 (3), 2020 pp. 297-312. (with J. Sandstrom and C.Persson); and ‘Rethinking Power, Strategy and Renewal: Members and Unions in Crisis’, British Journal of Industrial Relations 58 (2) 2019 pp. 424-46  (with C.Goods and P. Todd).

• Professor Rae Cooper (The University of Sydney Business School)
  Rae Cooper is Professor of Gender and Employment Relations at the University of Sydney School of Business where she has served as Associate Dean (Programs). She is. Co-director of the Business School’s Women, Work and Leadership Research Group. Her publications include joint editor of Employment Relations: Theory and Practice and is an Associate Editor of The Journal of Industrial Relations.

• Associate Professor Chris F Wright (SERRG Co-Director)
  Chris F. Wright is an Associate Professor in Work and Organisational Studies at the University of Sydney Business School and Co-Director of the Sydney Employment Relations Research Group. He has a PhD from the University of Cambridge. Chris’s research focuses on labour immigration, comparative employment relations and sustainable supply chains. He is joint editor of International and Comparative Employment Relations (Sage, forthcoming), an Editor of Journal of Industrial Relations and an Associate Editor of Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society.

• Dr Stephen Clibborn (SERRG Co-Director)
  Dr Stephen Clibborn is Co-Director of the Sydney Employment Relations Research Group (SERRG). He is a Senior Lecturer in the Disciple of Work and Organisational Studies, University of Sydney Business School and an Editor of the Journal of Industrial Relations. Stephen’s research in employment relations, regulation and migration focuses on business compliance with employment laws.