ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how industrial relations policies used before and during the economic crisis in Malaysia enhanced the imperatives of global manufacturing. The state labor regimes of countries like Malaysia and Singapore had excluded any possibilities for collective bargaining through their enacted legislations. In Malaysia, legislation banning the formation of unions is barely challenged as workers succumb to the appeal of management's 'internally charted' agenda. Outside efforts, particularly wielded by unions to resolve labor woes are considered unnecessary in a 'self-sufficient' organizational environment. Malaysian women workers, despite being the main transnational workforce for the last three decades have still not come-of-age, at least not in the arena of labor struggles. Most likely they would have to translate their new sense of 'empowerment' derived from shop-floor experiences outside the perimeter of astute global industrial management.
