ENGAGE Asia Programme

On 18 July 2025, 20 trade unionists and labor activists from eight countries in Asia—Bangladesh, Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Nepal, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Thailand—graduated from the five-month ENGAGE Asia Programme, a joint training programme of the UP School of Labor and Industrial Relations (UP SOLAIR) and the Global Labour University (GLU) in Germany, with the support of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, LO Norway (Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions), and International Transport Workers’ Federation. The 20 training participants attended the residential phase of the programme from 23 June to 18 July 2025 at UP SOLAIR. The graduation and closing ceremony took place at the Isabelo delos Reyes auditorium of UP SOLAIR.

Chancellor Edgardo Carlo L. Vistan II graced the graduation and closing ceremony and delivered his congratulatory message to the graduates. UP System President Angelo A. Jimenez sent his video message of congratulations and solidarity to the graduates. Floro Francisco, Regional Consultant for Asia of LO Norway, and Dr. Edlira Xhafa, Executive Director of the GLU Online Academy, also conveyed solidarity messages and lauded the accomplishments of the graduates. Dr. Melisa R. Serrano, Dean of UP SOLAIR, who is also the ENGAGE Asia Programme Director, delivered the closing remarks.

From 23 June to 17 July (9:00 am to 4:00 pm, Monday to Friday), the participants attended and engaged actively in 26 learning sessions and workshops that revolved around six major themes or modules that are relevant to the trade union movement: global governance; labor and development; industrial policy, wages and collective bargaining; contemporary challenges and changes in the world of work; trade unions in transformation and the power resources approach; and the conduct of group research/capstone projects on closing the representation gap of workers in the informal economy. For the last theme/module, the participants, who were divided into five research groups, went on five-day field research interviewing several groups of workers, such as waste pickers/recyclers, platform riders, trekking guides, and garment workers organized into a cooperative, in different parts of Metro Manila and Rizal. The research capstone projects were presented on 18 July, with UP SOLAIR Dean Serrano and Dr. Xhafa serving as critics. The critics’ verdict: Amazing capstone projects! Many of the participants were so inspired by their projects that they plan to replicate the research they did when they go back to their countries.

The resource persons of ENGAGE Asia came from various universities and research institutions (Berlin School of Economics and Law-Germany, University of Kassel-Germany, GLU-Germany, GLU Online Academy-Germany, University of Umea-Sweden, UP SOLAIR), global union federations (International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant, Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers’ Associations; Building and Wood Workers International Asia Pacific; Pubic Services International-Southeast Asia; International Domestic Workers’ Federation), national trade unions (Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa-Philippines; Public Services Labor Independent Confederation-Philippines; Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino-Philippines; General Industries Workers Union-South Africa; General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions-Nepal), an international trade union support organization (Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung), and a non-government organization (Migrant Forum in Asia). Several of the resource persons are alumni of the GLU.

The residential phase of the programme included a study visit on 28 June at the Pilipinas Kyohritsu Inc. (PKI), an export producer of automotive wiring harness, in Lipa, Batangas. There, the participants had a tour of the manufacturing facility, learned a lot about the process of assembling different types of automative wire harness and the work process, and engaged actively with leaders of the two unions in the factory—the PKI Supervisors’ Union and the PKI Employees’ Welfare Union, the latter being the union of the rank-and-file employees. Both unions are affiliated with the Philippine Metalworkers’ Alliance.

A side event, the Forum on Wages, the Living Wage and Inflation, took place on 2 July in parallel with the ENGAGE Asia Programme. In this forum, Dr. Hansjörg Herr, Professor Emeritus of the Berlin School of Economics and Law and Dr. Frank Hoffer, Research Fellow of the GLU, talked about the link between wages, including a living wage, employment and inflation, and argued that a well-designed wage policy does not necessarily result in employment losses and higher inflation but rather contributes to reducing income inequality.

The first phase of the ENGAGE Asia Programme—the online phase—took place between 3 March and 16 June 2025. This phase involved the completion by the participants of selected Massive Online Open Courses (MOOCs) of the GLU and the Power Resources Toolkit of the FES. An online workshop facilitated by a tutor complemented the MOOCs.

The 20 ENGAGE Asia graduates join the first batch of 23 trade unionists and labor activists who completed the programme in 2023. Like the earlier cohort, they now possess deeper knowledge and more tools to actively engage in public discourses and influence policymaking to promote workers’ rights, build worker power and advance social justice.