ABSTRACT
Trade unions in Vietnam have been experiencing substantial change since the adoption of the doi moi policy of economic reform in the mid-1980s. Up till then the trade unions were conceived and functioned as a ‘transmission belt’ (Kornai 1992) of the ruling communist party in the context of a socialist planned economy. Doi moi, however, changed the institutional context in which companies and consequently the trade unions operated. Small private enterprise became an increasingly important employer as did foreign companies that operated in Vietnam (Williams 1992; Quang 2001; Warner et al. 2005). At the same time state-owned enterprises were rationalized and subjected to privatization (equitization, as it is known in Vietnam).
