Just Work? Wildcat: Workers’ Movements and Global Capitalism Series Editors: Peter Alexander (University of Johannesburg) Immanuel Ness (City University of New York) Tim Pringle (SOAS, University of London) Malehoko Tshoaedi (University of Pretoria) Workers’ movements are a common and recurring feature in contemporary capitalism. The same militancy that inspired the mass labour movements of the twentieth century continues to define worker struggles that proliferate throughout the world today. For more than a century labour unions have mobilised to represent the political-economic interests of workers by uncovering the abuses of capitalism, establishing wage standards, improving oppressive working conditions, and bargaining with employers and the state. Since the 1970s, organised labour has declined in size and influence as the global power and influence of capital has expanded dramatically. The world over, existing unions are in a condition of fracture and turbulence in response to neoliberalism, financialisation, and the reappearance of rapacious forms of imperialism. New and modernised unions are adapting to conditions and creating class-conscious workers’ movement rooted in militancy and solidarity. Ironically, while the power of organised labour contracts, working-class militancy and resistance persists and is growing in the Global South. Wildcat publishes ambitious and innovative works on the history and political economy of workers’ movements and is a forum for debate on pivotal movements and labour struggles. The series applies a broad definition of the labour movement to include workers in and out of unions, and seeks works that examine proletarianisation and class formation; mass production; gender, affective and reproductive labour; imperialism and workers; syndicalism and independent unions, and labour and Leftist social and political movements. Also available: Southern Insurgency: The Coming of the Global Working Class Immanuel Ness Just Work? Migrant Workers’ Struggles Today Edited by Aziz Choudry and Mondli Hlatshwayo First published 2016 by Pluto Press 345 Archway Road, London N6 5AA www.plutobooks.com Copyright © Aziz Choudry and Mondli Hlatshwayo 2016 The right of the individual contributors to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 978 0 7453 3584 1 Hardback ISBN 978 0 7453 3583 4 Paperback ISBN 978 1 7837 1339 4 PDF eBook ISBN 978 1 7837 1341 7 Kindle eBook ISBN 978 1 7837 1340 0 EPUB eBook This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental standards of the country of origin. Typeset by Stanford DTP Services, Northampton, England Text design by Melanie Patrick Simultaneously printed in the European Union and United States of America Contents Acknowledgements vii List of Abbreviations ix 1 Just Work? Migrant Workers, Capitalist Globalisation and Resistance 1 Aziz Choudry and Mondli Hlatshwayo PART I: AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST 2 Xenophobia, Resilience, and Resistance of Immigrant Workers in South Africa: Collective and Individual Responses 21 Mondli Hlatshwayo 3 States of Exclusion: Migrant Work in the Gulf Arab States 41 Adam Hanieh 4 Undocumented Migrant Workers in Nigeria: Labouring in the Shadows of Regional Integration 61 Baba Ayelabola PART II: EUROPE 5 Migrant Rights Activism and the Tree Workers Case in the Czech Republic 85 Marek Čaněk 6 Towards a History of the Latin American Workers Association 2002–12 106 Jake Lagnado 7 Lessons from Migrant Workers’ Organisation and Mobilisation in Switzerland 129 Vasco Pedrina v Just Work? PART III: ASIA AND THE PACIFIC 8 Migrant Unionism in Hong Kong: A Case Study of Experiences of Foreign Domestic Workers in Union Organising 151 Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants 9 The Possibilities and Limitations of Organising Immigrant Workers in Japan: The Case of the Local Union of the All-Japan Metal and Information Machinery Workers’ Union 170 Hiroshi Ueki 10 Disaster Capitalism and Migrant Worker Organising in Aotearoa/New Zealand 188 Edward Miller and Dennis Maga PART IV: NORTH AMERICA 11 Migrante, Abante: Building Filipino Migrant Worker Leadership through Participatory Action Research 211 Valerie Francisco 12 Temporary Employment Agency Workers in Montreal: Immigrant and Migrant Workers’ Struggles in Canada 230 Aziz Choudry and Mostafa Henaway Contributor Biographies 251 Index 256 vi Acknowledgements At one level, the idea for Just Work?: Migrant Workers’ Struggles Today arose from conversations between the two of us, beginning in Johannesburg in 2012 and continuing in our face-to-face and virtual discussions since then. But at another level, as co-editors of this collection, our various engagements in worker and migrant justice struggles grounds and informs our scholarship and the rationale for our collaboration in putting this book together. Choudry currently works as an associate professor in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University, is a board member of the Immigrant Workers Centre in Montreal, and has a longer history of working with labour and other movements and organisations, particularly in the Asia-Pacific and North America. Hlatshwayo is a senior lecturer at the Centre for Education Rights and Transformation at the University of Johannesburg, and is involved in organising against xenophobia in South Africa. He has also written extensively on trade unions and immigrant workers in a South African context. This book has very much been a collective effort. First, we are deeply grateful to all of the chapter contributors for their work – many of whom took precious time away from organising and other responsibilities to work with us. We also acknowledge other colleagues who expressed strong interest in this book project, but who were unable to participate due to their commitments. Second, we sincerely thank David Shulman at Pluto Press for his enthusiasm and support throughout the process of producing this collection. We have greatly appreciated the encouragement of Manny Ness, as editor of Pluto’s new Wildcat series in which this book appears, as well as the professionalism of others at Pluto who have assisted in its production. Désirée Rochat’s efficient help in getting the manuscript ready for publication was invaluable. Finally, we acknowledge the sacrifices and struggles of migrant workers and organisers across the world, both within existing trade vii Just Work? union structures and in other forms of organisations and movements – and regardless of their state-ascribed ‘legal status’. Visible or not, recognised or not, these daily struggles are not only significant in their own right, but are also key sites of knowledge production – contributing vital ideas for action to resist global capitalism and fight for just working conditions and immigration policies in the twenty-first century. Aziz Choudry and Mondli Hlatshwayo All royalties from this book will go to The Immigrant Workers Centre, Montreal (www.iwc-cti.org). Chapter 12 is adapted from Choudry, A. and Henaway, M. (2014). ‘Temporary Agency Worker Organizing in an Era of Contingent Employment’. Global Labour Journal, 5(1), 1–22. viii List of Abbreviations ACOMORON Amalgamated Commercial Motorcycle Riders Organisation of Nigeria AMCB Asia Migrants Coordinating Body ANACOWA All Nigeria Automobile Commercial Owners and Workers’ Association APMM Asia Pacific Mission for Migrants BWI Building and Wood Workers International CAIC Campaign Against Immigration Controls CBPR Community-based participatory research CCMA Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration CLCF Committee for Localities with a Concentrated Foreigner Population CLR Construction Labour Research CNT Commission des normes du travail COLACOR Latin American Coalition Against the Cuts CORAS Colombian Refugee Association CoRMSA Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa COSATU Congress of South African Trade Unions CSD Centrale des syndicats démocratiques CSN Confédération des syndicats nationaux CSQ Centrale des syndicats du Québec CSST Commission de la santé et de la sécurité du travail CWAO Casual Workers Advice Office ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States EPMU Engineers, Printers and Manufacturers Union EQC Earthquake Commission EU European Union FCC Filipino Community Centre FDNS Front Des Non Syndicats ix