IndustriALL affiliate EIEUNR is fighting union busting at electronic components manufacturer Molex, one of Apple’s suppliers in Malaysia.
In response to the union busting at Molex Malaysia, IndustriALL affiliate Electronics Industry Employees’ Union, Northern Region (EIEUNR) lodged a complaint with the Industrial Relations Department (IRD), where cases of unfair treatment of workers are settled in the first instance.
IRD informed the union that they would carry out interviews with workers in the plant as part of the investigation. EIEUNR believes the interviews will cause the workers undue stress as they will be conducted in the workplace, meaning it will be easy for the employer to identify the interviewed workers.
EIEUNR has a recording where the human resources (HR) director is voicing threats to cut benefits if workers decide to vote for the union. The union has also received another recording with similar threats, where the HR director instructs managerial and supervisory staff to convince operators to vote against the union.
The audio recordings have been submitted to the IRD. The union believes these recordings represent sufficient evidence for IRD to recognize the unfair treatment of workers and demand that the employer carries out a secret ballot for union recognition without external interreference.
Giant technology company Apple is one of Molex’ major customers, and Molex’ behaviour towards its workers is in clear violation of Apple’s code of conduct:
“Supplier shall freely allow workers to associate with others, form, and join (or refrain from joining) organizations of their choice, and bargain collectively, without interference, discrimination, retaliation, or harassment.”
“The unfair treatment of workers at Molex is in clear violation of fundamental workers’ rights and trade union rights, guaranteed by core ILO conventions, and which should be respected by Malaysia. Apple and Molex’ other major customers must be made aware of the serious workers’ rights violation in their supply chain,” says Kan Matsuzaki, IndustriALL assistant general secretary.
This article first appeared on the website of IndustriALL.
