1,000 Burmese enter sixth day of strike at Thai plant

Sunday, 12 September 2010 16:37 Myint Maung

New Delhi (Mizzima) – More than 1,000 Burmese migrant workers from a fishnet factory in Khon Kaen, in northeast Thailand, enter their sixth day of a strike today, over their employer’s illegal doctoring of co-workers’ travel and work documents, and other labour abuses, labour rights workers and protest leaders say.

Management had as of yesterday failed respond to the workers’ demands, had issued an ultimatum for them to return to work tomorrow, and had boosted security at the plant, including arming Burmese guards with knives and guns, the protesters said.

Last Monday, six reportedly unwell Burmese workers dismissed from their jobs after three consecutive days absent had demanded the return of their effective passports – Overseas Workers’ Identification Cards issued by the Burmese Ministry of Labour, which had been confiscated by management.

Dechanpanich Fishing Net Factory management required that the Burmese work 1½ hours extra each day to pay for their passports and banned them from holding their documents, the MAP Foundation advocacy based in Chiang Mai, Thailand, which had been negotiating on behalf of the workers, said in a statement on Friday.

When the documents were returned, the workers found that the word “cancel” had been written next to their visa, the statement said.

“In addition, their Overseas Workers’ Identification Card, issued by Ministry of Labour, Union of Myanmar [Burma], had clearly been tampered with as the photos and information were non-matching and the stamps were not continuously drawn. They are now facing imminent deportation, endorsed by the employer, the Labour Protection Office and the Department of Employment,” MAP’s statement said.

More than 1,000 employees on Tuesday had stopped work to protest outside the plant in support of the sacked workers and to negotiate over other long-term grievances, a protest leader told Mizzima.

The MAP statement said it had passed to management the workers’ following demands: for the visas of the six workers to be reinstated and for their ID cards to be verified; for all workers to have possession of their personal documents, including passports, ID cards and work permits, as required by law; for the shops in their labour camp (closed by management) to be re-opened; for proper payment of the minimum wage and overtime in compliance with Thai labour laws; and, an immediate end to the system of bonded labour in the form of the extra work time added each day.

“The employer insisted [during subsequent talks] that immigration authorities had cancelled the workers’ visas and that they were therefore unable to work and must be deported,” it said.

However, MAP pointed out that for immigration officials to cancel a visa, the employer had to inform the Thai Labour Protection Office, which then had to inform the Immigration Department. Any cancellation had to include a reason and the signature of the authorising officer, it said, but in this case, only the word “cancel” was written next to the workers’ two-year visas.

The employer attempted to justify the illegal act of confiscating personal documents by saying that the workers might leave before they had paid off their debts, thus endorsing a system of debt bondage, the MAP statement said.

“He also said that it was easier for the employer to arrange the … regulation requiring all migrants to report to immigration authorities every 90 days,” it said.

Thai officials used the same justification. “In a meeting earlier in the day [Friday] with the local Department of Employment, they [Thai officials] had given the same explanation, despite the confiscation of personal documents being an illegal act,” the statement said.

The strikers’ demands continued to fall on deaf ears, MAP director Jackie Pollock said in a statement yesterday.

“The employer had made no moves to sit down and negotiate with the workers, despite their demands being very basic and in total compliance with Thai law,” the statement said.

Management had instead increased the number of guards in the factory compound. The employer had been using co-workers to maintain security among the thousands of employees in crowded living and working conditions, MAP reported.

The strikers told MAP that these security guards had been given knives and guns, leaving them in fear that pandemonium may break out if these untrained guards were let loose on them. Reports were filtering out of the factory of beatings, the NGO said.

“At 6 p.m. last night [Friday], some officials visited the factory, [and] the workers believe they were from the Department of Employment. The officials offered to correct the documents of five of the workers who had been sacked and whose documents had been cancelled or changed,” MAP said.

However, the migrants were fearful these changes may not be authorised and that any further deleting or writing in their passports may render them invalid in the eyes of the Burmese authorities.

“When we applied for the temporary passports in Myawaddy, we were told that we had to work in this job about a year, and then the next year, we could work at any place in Thailand and that the temporary passports could be renewed,” protest leader Zaw Min Naing told Mizzima. “However, we found that the employer had damaged our passports and visa-stamps with ink … [and] had stamped ‘cancel’ in our passports. So, we can’t use our passports anymore.”

Another protest leader Moe Htet said: “One of the regulations in our job was that if we were absent from work for three consecutive days, we could be dismissed. The six workers were dismissed in accordance with that regulation but they were absent because of their health conditions.”

When Mizzima phoned the factory to ask about the incident, a factory officer confirmed the protest but refused to provide any further details.

The workers understand that an official from the Burmese embassy was on his way to Khon Kaen, but were unaware whether this official would assist in negotiating for the rights of the workers or would conduct the deportation of the workers, MAP said in a statement on Friday.

The Yaung Chi Oo Workers’ Association of Thailand had joined MAP in providing support for the protestors, MAP said.

MAP had made an official request to the Committee on the Administration of Irregular Workers, Ministry of Labour, Thailand and the national police chief “to ensure that the migrant workers were not unlawfully deported and that their case is investigated, particularly with reference to the unauthorised cancellation of their visas and the tampering of the overseas identification cards”.

“We demanded that they not to be sent back to Burma and that they be protected in accordance with the law … we also demanded the food shops to be reopened”, MAP spokeswoman Mai Mai said.

Though other migrant workers at factories in Khon Kaen received about 157 baht (US$5) a day, the Burmese workers at Dechapanich were paid 140 baht, MAP said.

According to the MAP statement yesterday, management had told the migrants they may strike until today, but that they had to return to work on tomorrow. It had not said whether it intended to meet the workers’ demands nor what would happen if the workers failed to return to work.

According to a trading company website, Dechapanich boasts that it is one of the largest nylon fishnet factories in the world, with more than 4,000 experienced employees and a production capacity of 250 tons of nets a month. It exports to more than 40 countries including the United States, Finland, Denmark, Australia, Japan, Spain, Greece, Italy, Guatemala, Mexico and Canada, the website says.

At least 2,140 Burmese workers from Irrawaddy and Magway divisions and Mon State were working at the plant, MAP said.