Globalization has deepened the informalization processes in both the formal and informal labor markets of the Asia-Pacific region, resulting in an increasingly diverse pattern of working conditions for different types of workers. It has also put unions on the defensive as the number of workers covered by traditional collective bargaining agreements keeps shrinking due to the endless reengineering of work and ceaseless search of capital for flexible work and hiring arrangements. Thus, more and more workers on the margin, unable to acquire secure jobs in the eroding formal labor market, have been availing of the services of civil society organizations (CSOs) or non-governmental organizations formed to help disadvantaged groups in society; on the other hand, many trade unions are increasingly studying and even experimenting on how to organize services aimed at the informals NGO-style. At the national and even regional and global levels, the advocacy paths of trade unions and CSOs are also increasingly crossing one another because global trade and development issues are integral in the work of these two institutions such as those lined up in WTO deliberations.

It is in this context that an Asia-Pacific study group on TU-CSO services for Asia’s working class is being convened, for the express purpose of analyzing trends and issues related to the work of these organizations in both the formal and informal labor markets. The study group will also delve into the dynamics in the relationship of the two institutions and in their intertwining services. Hopefully, the work of the study group to be formed on the sidelines of the Asian IIRA Congress will be sustained by post-IIRA meetings, exchanges and correspondence among ‘volunteers’ joining the group. Everyone is welcome to the study group, which will meet on 22 April 2007 from 10 00 am to 1 00 pm at International Management Institute, B-10 Qutab Institutional Area, Tara Crescent, New Delhi 110 016, India
Tel: 91-11-26529237-9; (D):91-11-26968351
Fax: 91-11-26867539
Email: iiraarc@iira-india.org