About 110 participants from 16 countries participated in the workshop. On the first day country reports were presented, where participants shared about their country's migrant workers situation and policies. On the second day, there was input and discussion on Globalisation, Economic Restructuring and labor Migration.

There was also a panel discussion in order to hear about the experiences and responses to migrant workers' problems from the point of view of a receiving country (JCMK), a sending country (Philippines), and from a regional level (Migrant Forum in Asia). This was followed by an open forum. The final day's program involved the preparation of the following statement.

We recognise that in Asia alone, there are an estimated 15 million migrant workers (documented and undocumented). Women migrant workers constitute an increasing percentage of these. Economic, political, socio-cultural and religious marginalisation characterise the plight of migrant workers.

Would domination and control by advanced capitalist interests through structural adjustment, liberalisation and deregulation programmes of the International Monetary Fund, World Bank, and World Trade Organization, abetted by the collusion of governments, have resulted in poverty, unemployment and underemployment, unequal distribution of wealth within and among nations, collapse of agriculture, and the absence of peace and security in countries within the region.

Advocates of globalisation argue that it hastens the transfer of skills and technology and enhances productivity and efficiency. The reality is, globalisation of economies reinforces the control of advanced capitalists interests on the less developed countries, leading to the continued marginalisation, if not disintegration, of economic and socio-cultural systems in many countries in the South.

Globalisation requires the removal of trade and investment barriers to facilitate the movement of capital, investments, goods and labor across national borders. At the same time, advanced capitalist countries like the U.S. and Japan adopt protectionist policies.

We are gravely concerned that globalisation is leading to profit-driven economies that thrive on cheap and docile labor, especially of women, and societies that stress consumerism and competition.

In turn, these have resulted in the erosion of human values, commodification of people (especially migrant workers), disintegration of societies, families and communities, racism, xenophobia, unsustainable lifestyles, and the degradation of the environment. Demand for cheap labor has led to subcontracting mechanisms, adoption of "trainee" schemes and increasing feminisation of migrant labor.

This translates into absence of accountability of companies especially transnational corporations (TNCs), unjust wage structures, absence of economic and social security, and violence against women and migrants. The migrant workers, uprooted from their families and communities, have to work under hostile, abusive and exploitative situations, and are generally denied their right to organise and unionise.

We recognise the fact that migrant workers, whether documented or undocumented, have rights as workers and as human beings as embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, and other international conventions.

Initiatives have been taken by migrants and support groups in both sending and receiving countries in the areas of assistance to migrants, advocacy, lobbying, campaigning, networking, documentation/ information and research.

The challenge to migrant workers, support groups and the people is great. Globalisation gives rise to increasingly complex processes and situations. The relentless drive of the capitalists to pursue globalisation, and the governments' abdication of their responsibility to the people, make our tasks even greater. We boldly face this challenge.

• We advocate cooperation among peoples and social systems which are empowering, people-oriented, and which promote sustainable life and holistic, integral human values.

• We reject the existing model of development promoted by the IMF, WB, GATT/WTO and TNCs.

• We reject APEC and similar free trade and investment mechanisms or agreements.

• We hold governments accountable in providing decent employment for the people, and responsible for abetting the forces of globalisation.

1. Intensify the migrants' campaign against globalisation and APEC.
2. Strengthen and support the current lobbying and campaign initiatives for the ratification of the UN Convention for the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families.
3. Continue and strengthen the migrant action alert mechanism to expose blatant violations of migrants' human rights (e.g. through the Migrant Forum in Asia).
4. Undertake gender-sensitisation especially among migrants' advocates.
5. Conduct a regional campaign on the issue of violence against women migrant workers.
6. Declare a 'Migrant Workers' Day' every year for joint actions and education programmes across the region.
7. Encourage trade unions in sending and receiving countries to build linkages on migrants' concerns.
8. Develop disseminate and share education materials(manuals, etc) on globalisation and migrants' issues.
9. Work towards a common documentation system (basic data, migrants' rights violations, migrants' directory, etc).
10. Pressure governments to provide decent employment to the people, and encourage and monitor its efforts to undertake re-integration initiatives.
11. Organise migrants' savings/investment groups and alternative livelihood.
12. Integrate the recommendations of this conference in our respective organisational programmes.

Managers and government who are working for it to be repealed are saying that, "There is no menstruation leave law anywhere else in the world. Therefore as we head for the 21st century, we must bring this law into line with the rest of the world". We oppose this view.

The Korean Women Workers Associations United (KWWAU), trade unions and women's organizations adopted a formal and collective resolution opposing the repeal of paid menstruation leave. In addition, these groups presented the position of women's groups regarding the repeal of paid menstruation leave to the National Assembly.

Labor trade unions and women's organizations are also gathering complaints of cases in which the leave was requested but refused. In these ways, women's labor movement groups plan to continue their collective struggle to oppose the repeal of paid menstruation leave.

1. The repeal of paid menstruation leave will bring about the deterioration of working conditions

   Over 50% of women experiences physical symptoms during menstruation, including vomiting, dizziness, diarrhea, nausea, abdominal pains, waist and hip pains, general discomfort, psychological fatigue and depression and mental strain. Among these women, 25% feel pain severe enough to obstruct every day activity, and 40.4% of women workers note abnormal changes in their menstruation after quitting their jobs.

   Despite the fact that so many women workers experience such menstrual pain at work, menstruation leave is not currently being used freely. Women cite extra burdens to co-workers during leave, the dissatisfaction of managers, and the opportunity to supplement their low wages with the leave benefit as reasons for the low usage rate.

   In a situation in which low wages and high labor intensity make usage of menstruation leave difficult, it can be expected that even less, if any, women will opt to use the leave if it is changed to unpaid leave granted only at the request of the workers.

   In addition, when we consider that the leave is now being used by many women workers as a means of supplementing a wage level that only amounts to 55.7% of male wages, making menstruation leave unpaid would amount to a cut in women workers' wages.

   Finally, women workers now withstand harsh working conditions, including long hours some times exceeding 44 hours a week, work that requires standing, and alternative day and night work. As even monthly and annual leaves are not being used freely, repealing menstruation leave would signify great losses for maternity protection.

2. Repeal of paid menstruation leave represents an effort to ignore the social responsibilities for maternity.

   The level of maternity benefits in Korea remains extremely low compared with international standards. Repealing menstruation leave without considering improvements in working conditions, shortened working hours, and expansion of leave benefits will only worsen working conditions and result in further deterioration of maternity protection.

   Although the government has promised to institute a fetal examination leave system in exchange for repealing menstruation leave, no concrete measures or executive orders have been presented.

   In a situation where the Equal Employment Law is only being nominally applied and where the existing maternity protection system has not been solidified, it is impossible to accept further retractions of protection through the repeal of this leave. In addition, the Ministry of Labor claims that companies avoid hiring women because of the burden of financing menstruation and maternity leaves.

   Yet, the Ministry fails to consider that rather than maternity protection itself, it is the government's labor policies, which place the entire financial burden on companies, that is the cause of such company actions. In the end, it is clear that the Ministry's proposal to make menstruation leave unpaid is aligned with the intent of business to worsen working conditions by repealing the monthly leave and instituting a system of flexible working hours, all under the name of strengthening international competitiveness.

   The idea that women's employment will be expanded by repealing menstruation leave represents only the intent of government to avoid its social responsibilities for maternity protection.

3. Paid menstruation leave must not be repealed.

   The responsibility for reproducing and rearing the young leaders of the next generation lies not on the women as an individual, but on society as a whole.

   For this reason, maternity protection must take all maternal functions, including their formation, realization, and decline, as targets for benefits. Because a women's menstruation is directly related to maternal functions like pregnancy and childbirth, menstruation leave must without doubt be continued as a form of maternity protection.

   Rather than repealing the very minimal measures of maternity protection for purposes of international competitiveness, government and business must focus more attention on raising the working conditions of both male and female workers to international standards.

   Only when both male and female workers can be assured secure employment can international competitiveness be secured. Hence, we absolutely can and will not accept repeal of menstruation leave before we see improvements in working conditions, shortened hours, the elimination of low wages, guaranteed paid sick leave, and full employment equality for women.

Over the years, the labor in this company worked hard so that the corporation steadily grew to the point where it was able to build a large scale factory in China. However, because of this, Korean labor is now suffering from capital withdrawal, and business reduction. In addition, the head office in Japan has been reducing orders since December, 1995 and they were greatly reduced from January, 1996, so that workers were only given two or three hours of work a day which made them very anxious about their employment.

After the union executives were forced from their jobs and since the president visited Japan, we have worked overtime since May. It seems that carrying out the plan of business reduction by fake factory shutdown, and by destroying the workers' union using any means are the work of the Japanese head office, which was carried out by Koreans who did not realize what they were doing to their native workers.

There is no end to the oppression of capitalist

Because the manufacturing of the watch letter plate lost international competitiveness, the company on its way to closing or downsizing Korean Sambon and moving to China, first tried to destroy the labor union. They purposely withheld wages and caused employment instability and they tried to make the environment less positive by making the male managers and labor oppose the union.

This plan was unsuccessful so they broke into the union office and purposely committed violence against the managing staff (two staff needed to be hospitalized). The company did not end its action there but also accused the staff for losses incurred.

The company also forced the union members to choose between withdrawal from the union and dismissal by using violence and so most of the workers withdrew from the union. The ones who did not withdraw from the union were fired. By reason of not signing the collective bargaining agreement by the 16th, the president announced the closing down of the company.

After that, the male managers being the central leaders, imprisoned the managing staff and forced them to resign after verbally and physically abusing them.

After the president said that he would not cancel plans to close down the company for the previous managing staff, the company more strongly placed pressure on them to resign by using more violence. The union could no longer stand up against this violence.

Hence, the company wielded its power over the executive staff and broke up the union and now the factory is back on a regular work schedule. Their violence did not stop there. They achieved what they wanted - a shift in the working population, sale of a subsidiary company Changwon Electronic;

yet they were not satisfied at that point. They then fired the six executive staff of the labor union.

Outwardly a new good relationship between managers and workers

Finally, it turns out that the management reduction and announcement of company closure was false, and violent means were used to break up the democratically run union.

Also, the government said that they would change the relationship between the company and labor. However, the working area where we are has not changed a bit. The Korean Sambon capital has carried out non-democratic and illegal action to break up the democratic labor union, however, the government has not done anything to straighten out the problem, yet.

They just made the situation worse by not doing anything. The mass media reported the change between labor and management but the actual working place is not affected by that at all. With this trend, transnational company labor will always be anxious about their employment and their life will be uncomfortable under such circumstances.

In opposing this problem, we the workers are disclosing the wrongdoing of the transnational company and continue to fight for our demands. We will fight until the day that we will be happily working with our co-workers by protecting labors' self-autonomy, and until the day we are free from violence committed by the company.

My problems did not end there. Seven months after being fired, I have not received my pay and of course, I have not yet received my retirement grants either. The president of the printing press instead said to me, "You know the environment here, nobody from this printing press receives their retirement grants."

Since the president delayed my pay I became so frustrated that I went to the Office of Labor Affairs. The person in charge asked me how many people were working in the press and as soon as I answered him, "four," he coldly told me, without looking at my face, that there was no way he could help me out.

After all, labor working in a small business with less than five people are not able to get basic legal protection as a laborer. Just because I was in this situation I had no right to various pensions, resignation grants, health care and medical care insurance. However maybe I am lucky for I did not suffer from any accident while I was working. If so, I would not be able to work and also be unable to receive workers' compensation.

Being left unpaid for several months, getting fired one day on the president's own accord, working overnight in a place without safety devices and if we have an accident there is no where else to turn to -- these are the poor working conditions which we face. Not only this, but we are also forced to work like machines.

This problem, that just because I was a small business laborer, I am not entitled to labor rights while many laborers in this country have the right, should not happening. I am strongly crying out for all labor in small businesses of less than five people to be fully protected by the Standard Labor Law and industrial accident compensation insurance, just like the noted patriot, Jun Tae-Il, who shouted out on behalf of labor for the application of the Standard Labor Law as he committed self-immolation in 1970.

At this point of time, laborers working in small businesses with less than five people are understood to be numbered at more than a million. Of special note, according to 1992 statistics, 62.7% of female labor is working in such businesses.

A great number of these laborers working in small businesses are still not covered by the Standard Labor Law and Industrial accident compensation insurance law.

Although the National Assembly revised these laws to be applied to all businesses seven years ago, the Office of Labor Affairs has not yet revised the enforcement ordinance which states that only some small businesses must comply with these laws which is very difficult to understand.

We work for long hours in fear of sudden dismissal and receive no benefits like retirement funds, annual vacation, menstrual leave, maternity leave, workers' compensation.

Further we face problems due to being unprotected by the Equal Employment Law because this law only applies in the business where the Standard Labor Law and Industrial accident compensation insurance law is applied.

For these reasons, labor, citizen's and social groups united to form a joint struggle countermeasure committee to revise the enforcement ordinance so that the above two laws can also be applied in small businesses.

After the establishment of the joint struggle countermeasure committee, various activities have been carried out such as twice holding campaign and petition activities, advertising in a concentrated area of small businesses, denouncing the head of the Office of Labor Affairs for failing to carry out his duties properly, holding an assembly opposing the Office of Labor Affairs, and carrying out investigations into actual working areas.

These activities have also been reported on the TV program "PD Memo" and these serious problems in small businesses have gained the sympathy of many workers and citizens. As a result of these activities carried out by the joint struggle countermeasure committee, the government announced that the two laws would be applied to small businesses after the general election.

However it is quite disappointing since they will first apply these laws only in manufacturingbusinesses so in order to extend them into all business areas, we are continuing our action. The organization for Seoul Women's Labor is participating in the joint struggle countermeasure committee for the sake of the great number of female laborers in small businesses, to make sure that their working environment improves from the current situation in which their most basic rights are not protected.

It is worse if our children are in the hands of a stranger. We wonder if they are fed well, and worry about them not receiving as much love as others who spend all their time with their mothers. The worries and fears keep going on and on.

 Considering this, the children and parents associated with the Tuntun Children's House are those who are unusually lucky. Everyone who first steps into the children's House always says that the atmosphere of this place is as comfortable as our own home. That is why I decided to send my child here when he could not adapt himself elsewhere.

It was not easy to build such a Children's House. It is due to the efforts of the teachers who tried to build a model children's house to bring up the children appropriately while receiving the least amount of activity funds since 1989 that has made it possible.

The Regional Daycare Center Association in the Kuro region which is now the southern area nursery teacher's association helped the teachers not to lose their courage, as well as the volunteer workers and the members of the aid associations. The tender love of these people are alive in the breath of the children brought up in the Tuntun Children's House.

Actually, daycare center problems can be more easily solved with the efforts of the government, and that is how it should be. Children, however they are born or brought up, have the right to receive proper nurturing services as a member of the society. Even considering this, the government regards childcare policies as still the responsibility of each household.

However the efforts to take social responsibility for childcare, has already nonofficially become a movement. The Tuntun children's House has led this movement and is now stabilized.

The Uncles and Aunts of Tuntun - the voluntary workers

The children in the Tuntun children's House have many uncles and aunts. There are many episodes about the children not being able to tell the difference between their real relations and with the voluntary workers. Anyway the children call their student voluntary workers 'uncle' and 'aunt'. That maybe the reason why they are so close to the student voluntary workers.

The Tuntun children know about a lot of universities considering their age. The schools of the uncles and aunts who worked in Tuntun as a team include Seoul, Ewha Women's, Sungsil, and Myungji Universities.

Presently thirty uncles and aunts from Aronsemi in the business department of Sungsil University, and Onnuri in the child education department of Myungji university take turns in groups of three to four to visit the children's House everyday. Aronsemi started to come from 1989, and their juniors still visit today, and Onnuri started coming from 1993.

About the time when morning snacks are over, when there is the sound of opening gates and the cheers of children, it is surely the coming of the uncles and aunts. The teachers get a little bit jealous since the cheers are louder than when they come in, but it is still a pleasure to see them come. After the heart warming welcome from the children is over, the uncles and aunts start preparing meals with their aprons on.

Thanks to this, the children do not find males wearing aprons strange or inappropriate. They even scold their fathers saying why is dad reading the newspaper when mom is working in the kitchen? After lunch, the voluntary workers wash the dishes, help the children brush their teeth, clean the rooms and send the children to sleep telling stories and singing lullabies; though there are times when the children send their uncles and aunts to sleep. The work the voluntary workers do in the Tuntun Children's House is more like a nursery teacher than a voluntary worker.

Also, they open a one day pub to financially help the Children's House each year near their school and send all the funds raised to support the Tuntun Children's House. Also, the uncles who graduated and obtained a job are preparing an aid association to send funds from their first salary.

The uncles and aunts help relieve teachers from work overload, raise funds and most of all give much love to the children. It is hard to help the children release their energy without the help of young men, and the uncles are of great help. Maybe this is the reason why the children are brought up so vitally.

It will not be easy to do all the difficult work without love for the children, yet the uncles and aunts say they learn a lot from their activities in the Tuntun Children's House. They could be an extraordinary new generation. Anyway it is impossible to think of the Tuntun Children's House without its uncles and aunts. It is because they have become a part of the system.

The Aid Committee and the Mother's Committee support parents and neighbours

The mothers who sent their children to the Tuntun Children's House in the past have a meeting every month as a Childcare center aid committee. 'What would have happened to our children if there was no Tuntun Children's House?' The parents of the now elementary school students still shudder from the thought. They had to work to maintain the household, their children were too young, and the private daycare centers were too expensive to afford. The mothers are more thankful to Tuntun because those were hard times.

The circumstances have not improved much since then, but the mothers set up the committee to show their appreciation in one way or another and also wanted to continue the friendship they had built with other mothers in the same situation. It would have been difficult to set up a committee with only the concern and love for the children's house if there did not exist a mother's committee each month while their children were still being sent to the children's house.

The purpose of the mother's committee was to take responsibility and have concern for the management of the Childcare center, and have care for other children there as their own. Also, it was to learn how the children are educated there, have discussions, and to have consistency in the education of the children in the household as in the children's house. The father's committee was combined into a parents' committee but is now separated. So the fathers' and mothers' committee have a monthly meeting and receive lectures and carry out discussions.

The committee does various activities which are publicized in a bulletin written by a mother. For example, to open a bizarre, we have to begin preparations a month early. We have to contact all our neighbors and collect clothes and other materials. After work, we sort the clothes and estimate the price. The prices vary from 500 to 5000 won. The mothers who work in fabric factories borrow irons from their workplace to iron wrinkled clothes. The fathers draw posters and the mothers put them up in places where it is easy to attract attention.

On the day of the bizarre, the mothers and fathers come early in the morning to carry around materials, set them up and sell them. It is a good chance to become friends with others and a good way to raise funds for the children's house, though it is rather upsetting that this is the only way the children's house is maintained. When will Korea have a satisfactory system which will enable our children play in a large area? The mothers and fathers committee is a way for the children's house to share all these possibilities.

The Childcare Center Teacher's Association

The teachers of the Tuntun Children's house share their problems and find solutions together to improve the children's programs. They have been carrying out activities for ten years as a regional daycare center Association, but changed to the Southern nursery teacher's Association (the Kuro region as an example) united with the Civilian Daycare Center Facilities Association.

Since the daycare center facilities were very much in need in the beginning, their activities centered around movements such as: the movement to build a children's house; the movement to establish childcare laws, the movement demanding the revision of amendments and improvement of policies, and the demands to revise policies to incorporate civilian childcare centers into the government's child-care policies. It was impossible to raise the children appropriately without solving these fundamental problems.

Also, they carry out discussions and go over concrete problems such as "What should the authority of teachers be like?" "proper playing is a preparation for future work," "Male? Female? Sexual equality education" to teach the children a proper sense of value and proper behavior. Also they made small committees such as a "picture book group meeting" and "let's go out and play" to provide opportunities for children to read good books and make outdoor problems.

In the Declaration of the Establishment of the Daycare Center Teacher's Association, the teachers vow that they will act together in all activities connected to the proper upbringing of the children as follows: The daycare center teachers association that we are newly establishing will work to make a new model of the childcare movement and activate the voluntary and independent participation of all daycare teachers.

In other words the new childcare movement includes the following: looking for a new way to carry out childcare activities to improve quality; trying to improve all aspects of childcare programs; finding a reactive counterproposal for education; and to carry out activities to improve the situation of teachers and promote happiness in their lives.

The teachers of 'Tuntun' have an unusual amount of overtime work because of the reality that it is hard to gather with other teachers except at night. Yet, because of these efforts, the children at 'Tuntun' are growing up to find happiness in their attitudes.

There are a lot of others who participate in the Children's House with concern and love such as those who support the Child House individually, and 'aunts' who organized aid associations with colleagues because they can no longer work voluntarily because of lack of time. Anyway, those who participated in working for the Tuntun Children's House have tried hard to achieve the socialization of childcare and to become a model daycare center.

Still, Tuntun Children's House has many handicaps such as lack of space, and the government still has many problems to solve. To make a society that has children playing and parents working without any worries, programs like those carried out at 'Tuntun' should be established, and fundamental solutions should be provided according to the viewpoint that this is the responsibility of the society.