Japan Center For Asian Women Workers

Japanese and Western multinationals in Third World countries including Asia have caused many problems for women, who often work for them under severe, inhuman conditions.

The Center for Asian Women Workers Fellowship (CAWWF) in Japan has tried to show through its activities that there is a fundamental and strong connection between the labor problems of Asian and Japanese women workers.

The following is just one example of this relationship.

It became apparent several years ago that Japanese political leaders were inching towards a revision of the Labor Standards Law. They wanted to eliminate the provisions restricting overtime work and forbidding late night work for women workers except for already exempted occupations like nurses. When Asian women workers heard about this flagrant attempt to water down Japan's Labor Standards Law, they felt their attempts to improve their own working conditions could be futile.

The CAWWF struggled to prevent these inhuman changes in the law, appealing for support not only from its Asian friends but also from concerned individuals and organizations throughout the world. Unfortunately, they were not strong enough to stop the authorities from changing it. The provisions for women's protection were greatly undermined. They gave the false impression that improvements were being suggested, in a tactic designed to head off opposition to the new law. Nevertheless, the provisions to limit the long working hours and to prohibit late- night work by women production-line workers remained in the law.

The organization reports that even after these revisions of the law, management continues to devise every possible strategy to utilize the female labor force as cheaply as possible. As a result Japanese firms have exported this typical and highly successful tactic of labor management from which workers in Asia as well as in western countries have already begun to suffer.

To increase international solidarity of women on this problem, the Fellowship is organizing publication of up-to-date information in English.

For more information, contact:

Centre for Asian Women Workers'
Fellowship
2-3-18-34 Nishi-Waseda Shinjuku-Ku, Tokyo 160, Japan

South Africa Domestic Workers Union

South Africa's one million domestic workers, the most vulnerable and exploited group of workers in the apartheid state, are joining forces. The year 1987 heralds the launch of the 50,000 strong SA Domestic Workers Union (SADWU), made up of six major domestic worker organizations from throughout the country. Among their demands are laws to protect their rights. The union sees the 660,000 domestics who are not unionized as a major challenge. Other demands include: maternity benefits, minimum wage, holiday and sick pay and overtime.

(Outwrite, issue 55, Feb.87)
c/o THIS, Oxford House Derbyshire Street
London E2, England