Like many Asian states, Malaysia has used export processing zones (EPZs) as a strategy to promote economic development. It has been found that the role of the state in labour-management relations and the type of worker employed in EPZs are critical variables which affect the state's capability to maximize the economic potential of EPZs. This article analyses the impact that these variables have also had on the ability of EPZ workers to organize freely and bargain collectively. As a result it is proposed that the theoretical framework contextualizing this analysis has to extend beyond class and include a perspective which assesses how the private interests of workers as well as class affect EPZ labour. The private interests referred to here are ethnicity, gender and nationalism.
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