ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the implementation of a development program on collective bargaining in order to show specifically how the skills, practices, and knowledge of navigating the uncertain political terrain discussed in the previous chapters are applied in a particular context. this chapter takes up the sensitive issue of engaging in collective action in an authoritarian regime and shows how the labor NGOs go about mobilizing and organizing workers to initiate collective bargaining with management. Two ethnographic examples of two separate labor NGOs are discussed in this chapter, which serve as contrasting examples to illustrate the success as well as failure in carrying out the program. The chapter ends with an ethnographic anecdote that shows that despite acquiring the necessary skills and doing the right things as perceived by the NGOs themselves, the NGOs still encounter harassment from the government. With this, this chapter brings the reader back to the idea of uncertainty and further reinforces the uncertain conditions under which these NGOs exist.
