Trade Union In Malaysia Case Study

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5. TRADE UNION DENSITY A. IN MALAYSIA Density of trade union is defined as the percentage of union members of the total waged or salaried workforce. Trade union density in Malaysia is considered Low. According to the Vice President of MTUC in The Star, 2012, only 9% of workers in Malaysia were unionized and the number of workers joining trade unions was on the decline despite rising workforce population. Industrial relation practices in Malaysia have changed and continuously evolved since its early days in the 1920s. Trade union movement in Malaysia was revived in 1950s when the British government was promoting a more compliant trade union movement and a number of major national labor unions were established including the Malayan Trades Union Council (now known as the Malaysian Trades Union Congress, MTUC) and the Labor Party of Malaya. However, the less hostile political environment towards trade unions gave rise to the formation of several new militant unions in the early 1960s. They upheld strike and took other industrial actions to support their claims. From the mid-1960s…show more content…
Density is crucial since it determines the bargaining power of a trade…show more content…
Barber (2003), the TUC General Secretary in UK, argues that increasing global economic competition and capital mobility, rise of cross-border production networks combined with outsourcing, neo-liberal economic policies, rapid pace in technological innovation, privatisation, contraction of the manufacturing sector and expansion of the services sector, changes in production processes, and growing employer resistance to unionization have reduced the number of “organisable” workers, exacerbated difficulties in union organizing and adversely affected membership commitment to

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