Political reforms and market liberalization significantly shaped the terrains of workers’ struggles in Asia. While Cambodia, Indonesia, China and Vietnam have also all seen market liberalisation and export-oriented industrialisation, they experienced divergent political trajectories, with some undergoing democratization and others remaining as authoritarian states. In this episode, we look at the impacts of these developments, including the institutionalisation of labour relations such as in Cambodia, and the continuing political exclusion of labour as in Vietnam and China. We discuss how labour movements responded to the political and economic dynamics by drawing on a mixed repertoire of organizing, mobilization and advocacy.