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Summary*
The Thai Krieng Factory (re-named the Thai Durable
Factory) was founded 40 years ago. 30% of the production
is for export to America and Europe. Of the 1,888 workers,
1,031 are members of the Thai Krieng Durable Textile Trade
Union. Most of the workers are middle age women who have
been working in the factory for more than 15 years. 
In 1993, the Company tried to lay-off union-leader
and committee members citing the need for market competitiveness
and technological change as the reason for the lay-off. The workers
went on strikes and occupied the factory. The Management was forced
to comply with the worker's demands, the lay-off was postponed
and union leaders were given back their posts. Since then, the
management of the company has changed hands.
During the depth of the economic crisis 1998, workers
did not demand any welfare to ease the financial situation of
the company and assisted the company in negotiating for debt reschedule
with the Bangkok Bank. Workers even sacrificed their wage increase
and asked not to be paid for days such as holidays which they
do not work. But when the financial situation, production and
sale of the company improved, the workers esteem, after having
assessed the standing of the business and the general economic
situation and conducted opinion survey among its members, that
the company should make greater and just contribution to the workers.
After the general meeting of the union on September 12,1999, union's
member decided that the trade union should hand demands to the
company to negotiate for wage increases, improved working conditions
and welfare which had been postponed for years now.
But when the union filed the demands, the Company
made counter-demands, essentially declaring that wages and benefits
are the sole discretion of the management, and ordered the close
down of the production section where members of the trade union
worked. This move clearly showed that the management had no intention
of respecting the collective bargaining rights of the workers,
despite that gaurantee under Thailand's Labor Act of 1975.
*The above text is a summary of an open letter
sent by the Committee for Asian Women
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