Barely two weeks upon his historic return from more than 24 years of exile, Maung-maung, FTUB General Secretary has coordinated the 2nd BWI mission in Burma from 11th -14th September 2012 which applauded and supported the organizing of two construction workers’ union in Bogo and Rangoon.

“Our organizers and activists are simply energetic, dynamic and full of hope that by creating a strong and sustainable trade unions, the workers can meaningfully participate in all spheres of country’s growth and development,” Maung-Maung expressed during the briefing meeting with the BWI delegation composed by Niklas Enstrom, International Secretary of the Swedish Electricians’ Trade Union (SEF) and Apolinar Tolentino, BWI Regional Representative for Asia Pacific.

Maung- Maung continued, “In Bogo Division for example, the Labour Department has imposed an additional requirement of ten percent of claimed membership must sign up as members to be exhibited in the registration form; but our organizers were determined to surmount this administrative hurdle.”

“We are very relieved and glad to finally meet you here in your own country,” said Niklas when he met Maung-Maung. “The BWI will try its best to continue providing the necessary support that will help to build strong Building, Construction and Forestry Worker Unions in Mynmar”, he added.

The BWI mission met Mr. U Myo Aung, Director General of the Labour Department, Ministry of Labour (MoL) who expressed his interest to enter into cooperation with emerging unions in the country. “We have a particular interest on upgrading the skills standards of our employees to match up with the demand of the labour market in the advent foreign direct investments,” he confided. The Mynmar government has just approved its Foreign Direct Investment Law.

On his part, Niklas explained “We are very interested to intensify our Trade Union cooperation work with FTUB in the light of the on-going reforms and in particular we are very keen to hold series of international events in the immediate future.”

“Our primary activities are all geared to providing basic Trade Union training courses to our organizers, activists and labour lawyers in anticipation of issues around union registration; enforcement of labour laws and collective bargaining and hopefully we can immediately reconstitute our organizational structures with fresh democratic mandate,” Maung-Maung concluded.