Beginnings
In Asia, work for the education and organization of women workers started as a concern of Church people. As early as 1977, the Asian Women's Forum held immediately before the CCA (Christian Conference of Asia) Assembly in Penang, Malaysia underlined the importance of responding to the needs of labour "particularly of women workers." At the CCA Assembly itself, this concern for women workers was seen in the context of "Women in the Search of Full Humanity". Soon after, the CCA-URM (Urban Rural Mission) Committee meeting in Burma in 1977 made a definite proposal to find a coordinator who would facilitate the program for women workers in Asia.
In 1977-1979, with CCA-URM based in Japan, groundwork was laid by a woman organizer, Miyoko Shiozawa, a Japanese Christian woman, very much involved in labor issues and concerned about women workers in industry. Later, as CCA-URM moved to Hongkong after the Burma meeting, another woman was commissioned to act as Program Coordinator for Women Workers Concerns. Teresa Dagdag, a Filipina Catholic sister of the Maryknoll Congregation, involved in workers' education and organization in Hongkong, accepted the task of visiting groups and facilitating programs for women workers in Asia. This mission took her to different Asian countries, serving Christian and other groups, starting links with both Protestant and Catholic groups. In October, 1979, at a Justice and Peace Consultation in Tokyo, Japan, the women workers concern was affirmed as an urgent issue for Justice and Peace groups all over Asia to address and support. Soon after, a Women's Desk was also started by OHD (Office for Human Development), the social arm of the FABC (Federation of Asian Bishops Conference) based in Manila. Sr. Filo Hirota, a Japanese Mercedarian sister, joined the women actively involved in serving the women workers in Asia!
In 1980, Filipina Franciscan Sister, Lourdes Santos and a Chinese Catholic sister. Christian Tse swelled the ranks of Church women in ministry to women workers. In 1981, a visit and meeting in Korea gave us an opportunity to learn from the experiences of Rev. Cho Hwa-Soon, a woman Protestant pastor, who for years has been supporting women workers struggles. To date, there are many others who have been working directly and in support of the women workers in different countries — in Taiwan, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, most of whom are women in the Church.
Development
As the work in support of the women workers struggle developed, activities took the form of workshops, worker-exchange, information-exchange and solidarity linkage. A workshop for garments women workers was held in Manila in 1980; for electronics women workers in Malaysia in 1981; and for textile women workers in Manila in 1984. Various newsletters and books were published to raise the consciousnesses of concerned individuals and groups to the plight of the women workers in Asia. Some are: Struggling to Survive, 1981; From the Womb of Han (Stories of Korean Women Workers), 1982; Plight of Asian Workers in Electronics, 1982; Our Rightful Share, 1984; and Tales of Filipino Working Women, 1984.
As more and more women began to see the need to support the struggle of the Asian women workers, the idea of CAW (Committee for Asian Women) was born. It was discussed more fully in Korea in April 1981 and affirmed in the Electronics Workshop in Malaysia in October of the same year. It was only in December 1982 that the organizing committee meeting was held in Bangkok, Thailand.
Today, CAW is composed of women from different countries in Asia. At a recent meeting in Hongkong, CAW re-affirmed its thrust to be in support of and to facilitate the response to the struggles of women in Asia, particularly those working in manufacturing industries in production lines of transnational corporations as unskilled and semi-skilled labor. In CAW's considerations, Asia is sub-divided into three subregions: Southeast Asia (Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia); East Asia (Japan, Hongkong, Taiwan, and South Korea), and South Asia (Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh). The further subdivision was agreed upon due to the observed commonalities in the situation of women workers in the same sub-region. Capital flight takes the route via East Asia, then Southeast Asia and then South Asia. This is evidenced by the wages which show that East Asia offers the highest wages while in general women workers in South Asia receive the least.
Where More Help is Needed: Be concerned, be connected, and be committed!
The struggle of the Asian women workers is three-pronged: Firstly, she is a worker, which puts her at a disadvantage as someone who sells her labor for a price, hence her efforts become a commodity. She is usually overworked, underpaid and barely protected by labor laws. Secondly, she is a woman, which puts her at a secondary position because she is hired for her dexterous hands and nimble fingers, her submissiveness and her docility which prove her an asset on the factory assembly lines. She is also highly prone to sexploitation in exchange for jobs or promotion. Thirdly, she is Asian, and as an Asian, she belongs to the Third World, a region usually exploited for cheap labor.
As the response to the needs of the women workers in Asia formally started with in Church circles, specifically taken up by women in the Church, there is a need to highlight these concerns of the women workers so that more women, church women, other concerned women may give more attention to their struggles. The work is vast and we are just beginning. There is need not only to be concerned but also to be connected. This means that women responding to the plight of these Asian women workers need to link up in solidarity in order to address this issue which is closely related to the flight of transnational capital. The third challenge is to be committed to their cause. To the women who are aware and able to respond to these needs of the Asian women workers, we put out this challenge: to be concerned, to be connected and to be committed.
The women workers issues have their roots in the international flight of capital; hence this problem needs international solution and approaches. International linkages among concerned women all over the world need to be established and strengthened in order to support effectively the struggles of our sisters in the industrial sector in Asia, in this part of the Third World.
Teresa Dagdag, MM,
Executive Committee Member,
Committee for Asian Women