Strikes, Debate, and English Zone Students

Today was an exciting day to delve more into the labor relations of Vietnam. We began by waking up early for a class with Mr. Fincher about Vietnamese labor law and collective bargaining agreements. The conversation ranged from the history of anti-government movements, to trade unions, to the difference between written rule of law and practiced rule of law that is influenced by foreign investors. We then discussed how Vietnamese law does include striking. Under law, all legal strikes must be approved through a state process that is days long. Since the structural barriers are so high, workers engage in illegal wildcat strikes instead. We also discussed typical paid vacations or bonuses that employees receive for Tet Holiday, and other regulations that brands usually include in their codes of conduct and responsibility. We concluded the discussion summarizing the collective bargaining agreements Mr. Fincher had asked us to read earlier in the week, and this gave us new insight on typical Western agreements.

Lecture with Mr. Fincher

Furious preparation for the final debate

After lunch, we had the opportunity to join a conversation between the Dean of the TDTU Labor School and a group of union organizers and union-side labor lawyers from the United States. The dean explained the current political arrangement and labor-union relationship and how that differs from the West. It was interesting to hear the changes, past and present, that these union activists have made for the United States and I thought it would give them an interesting perspective to look at Vietnamese labor relations.

It was the second to last day of debate, so we dove directly into case structure and argumentation upon entering the room. Ming, Nelson, and Ryan did a fantastic job on explaining the expectations and guidelines in a standard debate. It was the first time many of these TDTU students debated, and we were all so proud of their enthusiasm and confidence! The TDTU students I talked to had very innovative and thoughtful ideas that were extremely impressive and well-constructed despite English not being their first language. We received our official debate teams and final debate topic for the tournament on Friday. Who knows who will win, guess we’ll find out tomorrow!

To conclude the day, we met up with the English Zone students for dinner at a local vegan restaurant—they are some of the nicest people I have ever met. They were excited to show us around District 1 a bit and gave us their opinion on their favorite Vietnamese restaurant dishes and street food. They brought homemade shrimp and pork dumplings with them that were honestly the best rice dumplings I have had. The vegan restaurant served authentic aloe juice that was incredibly refreshing. 

Enjoying delicious vegan food with the English Zone students

Our conversations ranged from traditional dishes and desserts made in their villages during Tet Holiday to the differences in language and culture between north, central, and south Vietnam. Afterwards we created a groupchat on Facebook messenger to keep in contact that included our name-game, fun adjectives, and we all made plans for the next week to hang out again. What a nice way to end such a busy day! — Olivia