Friends of Women, Malaysia (Suara Wanita)

Malaysian workers today are forced to bear the brunt of all the vagaries of an economic system that is touted as having brought the fruits of prosperity to the Malaysian people. Yet today those fruits are turning sour. The prices of all major commodities have collapsed and recovery is still far away. Unemployment has increased from 7.6 percent of the total labour force to 8.5 percent on government estimates and 9.5 percent according to the Malaysian Trade Union Congress estimate. The labor scene in Malaysia is thus one of insecure employment, stagnation in wages, and the worsening of already poor working conditions.

Retrenchment in the manufacturing sector have affected women workers very badly. In the electronics and textile industries they have been laid off in large numbers in the past year. Women in the service sector and in plantations have also been affected. Unjust labor laws lead to widespread repression. Electronics workers have been denied their baOsic right to form a trade union. The Trade Union Act also denies workers the right to carry out a legal strike because of the tough legal requirements for such action. There is no minimum wage law in the country and in fact the laws have been changed to make it easier for foreign investors to exploit Malaysian labor.

Persatuan Sahabat Wanita - a newsletter for women - plans to draw the attention of women to these pressing issues. The group "Friends of Women" believes that social, economic and political issues are as much women's issues as inequalities in the legal and cultural situations.

The May 1987 issue of the newsletter looks at the plight of women workers in two contrasting working environments - sophisticated assembly lines in an electronics factory owned by a leading multinational corporation and the dingy working environment of women in a small Malaysian company.

For more information, contact:

Sahabat Wanita Selangor
c/o 17, Road 17, Sungei Way
Malaysia

Hidden Workers of the World

Employment opportunities for 15,000 young Bangladeshi women depend on the garment industry, which is solely geared to exports and mainly financed by foreign capital. This is particularly crucial in a country where job opportunities are limited and poverty is all-pervasive.

 A new pattern of trade and women's global employment has emerged in recent years. Swasti Mitter, author of Common Fate, Common Bond, Women and the Global Economy and senior lecturer in Business Management at Brighton Polytechnic in England, writes for Spare Rib about the growing body of women workers whose networks are challenging the multinationals. They are also calling for the labor movement to take up the cause of the increasing number of casual and home-based workers.

Source:

Spare Rib, March 1987
27 Clerkenwell Close
London EC 1 OAT, UK
47300 Petaling Jaya, Selangor