US senators urge Vietnam to respect labourers' rightsAsia-Pacific NewsJul 8, 2010 Hanoi - A group of US senators have urged the Vietnamese government to respect rights of labourers if it wants any free trade agreements with the United States, state media reported Thursday. The delegation, led by Senator Tom Harkin - chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee - and Senators Jeff Merkley, Al Franken, Bernie Sanders as well as Representative Lynn Woolsey arrived Vietnam on Tuesday. The main purpose of the visit was to help Vietnam deal with the lasting effects of the herbicide Agent Orange which was used by the US military during the Vietnam War and to discuss how to increase trade between the two countries. But Senator Harkin said his group also raised the issue of workers' rights and urged the government of Vietnam to respect them. 'We wanted to explain to all the government officials we met with that the issue of labour rights, worker rights, freedom of organization is an essential - an essential part - of any future liberalisation of trade agreements with the United States,' Harkin said at a press conference Wednesday. 'Workers in Vietnam must have the right to organize, to form unions, to negotiate contracts ... independent unions elected by the workers themselves,' Sanders added. The group met Premier Nguyen Tan Dung, Deputy Chairman of National Assembly Nguyen Duc Kien and Nguyen Thi Kim Ngan, the labour minister, the communist-party run newspaper Nhan Dan reported. The state-run Vietnam News quoted Ngan as saying Vietnam would continue discussing labour issues with the US but did not specify any measures to guarantee workers' rights.
Vietnam Human Rights Network |