South East Asia unions advance Just Transition demands

Building on last year's meeting in Manila, where unions deepened their understanding of Just Transition and applied IndustriALL's trade union guide of practice, the Bangkok workshop provided an opportunity to share updates on progress, achievements and challenges.

Workers across South East Asia are already experiencing the consequences of climate change, energy transitions, and the rapid introduction of digital technologies and artificial intelligence. These changes are reshaping industries, affecting jobs and income security, and often taking place without proper consultation or protections. For unions, the task is to address the risks of job losses, precarity and inequality, while at the same time pushing for new rights, training and safeguards in a changing world of work.

Participants reported on initiatives including:

• building alliances and networks with key stakeholders
• advocacy at the national level
• strengthening local union structures
• negotiating collective bargaining clauses addressing climate impacts and technological change

As next steps, affiliates agreed to sustain and expand these efforts by:

• raising awareness among workers at the local level
• building capacity on climate and technology issues through training and expert development
• engaging effectively in social dialogue and tripartite mechanisms
• campaigning for public policy and legislative reform
• making use of tools such as due diligence processes and global framework agreements
• establishing Just Transition committees in workplaces

IndustriALL assistant general secretary Kan Matsuzaki, highlighted:

"The current crisis is not only about climate change and digitalisation. It is also deepening inequalities, hitting the most vulnerable workers, women and young workers the hardest. A Just Transition must be rooted in human rights, labour rights, and social justice, ensuring that no one is left behind. Embedding Just Transition in industrial strategies is essential to avoid deregulated relocations, build sustainable value chains and protect jobs and labour standards."

IndustriALL regional secretary Ramon Certeza, said:

"Grounded in workers' realities, our Just Transition must be worker-centred, union-led, gender-responsive, and driven by shared learning, collective action and concrete campaigns."

Prior to the workshop, a strategic planning meeting was held on organizing workers in the electric vehicle (EV) industry. Convened under the battery supply chain project supported by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES), the meeting brought together Thai affiliate unions from CILT. Participants examined the impact of rising EV investment from China into Thailand and agreed an action plan to map the EV and battery supply chain across industrial areas, and to deliver safety and health training for EV workers, manufacturers and industry associations.