Marsha,

This is fascinating. What changed five years ago that led to so much economic change?

Kurt S. Schulzke, JD, CPA, CFE 
Associate Professor of Accounting & Business Law 
Director - Law, Ethics & Regulation 
Corporate Governance Center 
Kennesaw State University 
+ 1-470-578-6379 (O) 
+ 1-404-861-5729 (C)
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/kurtschulzke/

----- Original Message -----
From: "Marsha Hass" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "Academy of Legal Studies in Business" <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, January 27, 2017 8:40:22 AM
Subject: fyi

Monday, January 23, 2017
Teaching Labor in Saigon
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[image: TDTU]
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I've mentioned on Facebook that I've spent the last couple of weeks
teaching at a Saigon labor college. I'm writing now to give an update --
and a heads-up to anyone who might be interested in either a short-term gig
or a longer-term Fulbright here. Both, I think, would be terrific options.
TDTU is a public university located in an affluent (mostly Korean ex-pat)
suburb of Siagon. Students come from middle- and working-class families.
They are dedicated and work hard. The school aspires to be a top-100
university worldwide, and a big part of its definition of success is
ensuring that all students know English (which is still a work-in-progress).

The campus is beautiful. It is indistinguishable from a suburban American
campus and is very well-maintained. Security is tight and everyone feels
safe walking around campus at all hours of the day or night. Students are
incredibly deferential to faculty - a head-bow is the norm even in casual
passing with students you've never seen before -- and students often
approach to speak informally and practice their English skills.

Though facilities and groundskeeping are generously funded, domestic
faculty workloads are heavy. The Uni supplements its faculty by hiring
copious adjuncts in the law school and by inviting foreign visitors to
teach for anywhere from 2 weeks (my gig) to a year (my successor who is
coming on a Fulbright). The Uni has robust business schools and a labor
relations school. It also has a new law school, which despite being only 3
years old already enrolls nearly 1000 (mostly undergraduate) students.

Visitng faculty are treated well. I was housed in a University apartment,
which was a spacious accommodation immediately underneath the soccer
bleachers. Staff are incredibly attentive to your every need, including
laundry. Food is plentiful and dirt-cheap at the student canteens, faculty
dining hall, and street-food stalls across the street, (There's also plenty
of higher-end, sit-down service nearby, but I only went there when the Uni
folks took me out -- the other options were cheaper (hard to spend more
than $2/meal) and at least as good.

There's a group of about 10-ish Americans, mostly labor-activist types, who
teach at TDTU regularly on a purely volunteer basis. These tend to be
Vietnam-war-activist-types who see this as a way of giving back. I get the
impression that their virulent pro-labor quasi-socialist ideology is taken
with a grain of salt by the more pragmatic University folks and students.
Official government policy is still socialist, but Saigon is as wildly
capitalistic as you can imagine. Workers rights are important but so is
overall economic prosperity. Most folks here recognize that the two are not
necessarily mutually exclusive. Indeed, the ILO and he Better Works Program
have accomplished huge strides in convincing foreign brands and local
manufacturers that reasonable workplace standards make good business sense.

I suspect that many of you would be most interested in either a short-time
visit like I did or a Fulbright. A short-time visit can be for as little as
two weeks (that's what I did - I tag-teamed a course with an American
instructor who will finish the course I started. I paid my travel; TDTU
provided my accommodation, but did not provide a stipend (not did I ask for
one). They treated me like royalty. An ideal visit might be on a
Fulbright,which would pay you nicely for your time and travel. The Uni is
also looking for retired American faculty who are looking to do something
different for a year. Under that arrangement, room/board would be provided
generously, but the stipend, which I believe is still under negotiation,
would be reasonable but hardly generous by Western standards.

The huge academic plus from my perspective is that this is where all the
action is in labor law/markets. Major labor law reform happens here every
couple of years. In 5 years Vietnam has gone from an undeveloped country to
a middle-income country. Five years ago garment manufacturing was king and
was ruled by foreign capital and management. In 5 short years Vietnam
(especially the south, in the Saigon area) has invested heavily in
ports/highways/education/general infrastructure, so the big manufacturing
facilities increasingly are being managed (and staffed with back-office
professionals) locally. As in China, wages are rising proportionally,
leading to some migration of low-cost work to Bangladesh Cambodia and
Myanmar. Labor markets and labor law are in tremendous flux, and though I
would not pretend to be any expert on it, it is fascinating to observe from
both an snails-eye and an bird's eye view.

Feel free to email me if I can answer any further questions.

rb

January 23, 2017 in International & Comparative L.E.L.
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