(Photo: Department of Migrant Workers)

Global union backs ITUC-Asia Pacific warning as Manila hosts the 19th ASEAN Forum on Migrant Labour.

As the 19th ASEAN Forum on Migrant Labour (AFML) opens today at the Philippine International Convention Center (PICC) in Manila, the Building and Wood Workers' International (BWI) calls on the ASEAN Secretariat and all ASEAN member states to reject the Myanmar military regime's latest attempt to plant regime-sponsored organisations in ASEAN labour mechanisms under the stolen identities of independent trade unions.

BWI joins ITUC-Asia Pacific in condemning the junta's misappropriation of the registered name, flag and logo of the Confederation of Trade Unions Myanmar (CTUM). BWI's own affiliate, the Building and Wood Workers' Federation of Myanmar (BWFM), has also had its name and logo stolen by military-affiliated groups posing as the federation.

These are not isolated acts of impersonation. They are part of a deliberate campaign to deceive the international community, and the International Labour Organization (ILO) in particular, into believing that trade unions operate freely in Myanmar. The reality is the opposite. Since the 2021 coup, independent unions have been declared unlawful, their leaders arrested, charged or forced into exile, and workers who organise face surveillance, violence and imprisonment. A union that exists only with the permission of the military is not a union. It is an instrument of the regime.

The stakes are especially high at this year's forum, which will discuss the protection of migrant workers and ethical labour migration pathways. Millions of Myanmar workers have fled conflict, conscription and economic collapse to work across the region, many of them in construction and other sectors where BWI affiliates organise. Their protection cannot be entrusted to organisations controlled by the very regime they fled.

A reshuffle aimed at the ILO

The regime's intentions are further revealed by this month's changes at the Ministry of Labour under self-appointed President Min Aung Hlaing. Labour Minister Khin Maung Soe has been replaced by U Maung Myint, who served as Minister of Labour in 2012–2013, and former Permanent Secretary U Myo Aung has been recalled to the ministry as Deputy Minister. Both are veterans of the years when the regime was still answering to the ILO over forced labour under the Article 33 measures first adopted in 2000. As Labour Minister and later as a USDP lawmaker, U Maung Myint consistently defended the military's political role and resisted the expansion of trade union rights.

BWI regards this as a clear signal that the regime is preparing to counter the ILO Governing Body at its 358th Session in November 2026, which is expected to act on the credible monitoring mechanism to document violations of freedom of association and forced labour in Myanmar. Rather than comply with the recommendations of the 2023 ILO Commission of Inquiry, the junta is bringing back the officials who once managed its defence before the ILO, and reviving the same tactics of denial.

The regime has made no secret of its aims. At a 9 September meeting of its committee on the Commission of Inquiry recommendations, then Labour Minister Khin Maung Soe dismissed the ILO's measures as based on "one-sided accusations and misinformation", attacked what he called a "secret monitoring mechanism", and said he had sought the full support of ASEAN member states for Myanmar to resume participation in ILO meetings. The same committee claimed to be making "arrangements for allowing workers' organizations to be freely formed and operated" a claim the theft of CTUM's and BWFM's identities exposes as hollow. ASEAN must not become the regime's back door into the ILO.

The Myanmar junta is trying to fool the world with fake unions and recycled officials. It stole CTUM's name, it stole BWFM's name, and now it wants to steal a seat at ASEAN's table. ASEAN must not hand it one.

BWI's calls:

1. The ASEAN Secretariat must not allow the AFML to be manipulated by the Myanmar military regime. No organisation sponsored by or affiliated with the military should be accepted as representing Myanmar's workers in the AFML or any ASEAN labour mechanism.
2. The genuine CTUM must be allowed to participate as the legitimate representative of Myanmar's workers, as the ILO-recognised trade union centre of Myanmar.
3. The Myanmar military regime must stop sponsoring fake trade union organisations in all ASEAN bodies, and instead implement without delay the recommendations of the ILO Commission of Inquiry, restoring freedom of association and ending forced labour.

BWI further urges ASEAN member states, including the Philippines as host of this year's forum, to support the ILO Governing Body in establishing the Myanmar monitoring mechanism this November, consistent with the 2025 International Labour Conference resolution under Article 33 and ASEAN's own Five-Point Consensus.

BWI welcomes the 8 October statement of the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines, which raised concern over continuing violations of workers' rights in Myanmar, including restrictions on freedom of association and forced labour, and called for stronger regional action. As host of the AFML, the Philippines has a particular responsibility to ensure that the forum gives voice to Myanmar's genuine workers' organisations and not to the regime's proxies.

“Myanmar's workers have paid with their freedom, and many with their lives, for the right to organise. Their voice belongs to the unions they built, not to the generals who are trying to silence them” said Apolinar Tolentino, BWI Asia Pacific Regional Representative.