Update on Thai Durable (Krieng)

16 September 2001
Thai Labour Campaign

Thai Krieng Workers Clash with Police

Dear Friends,

We are sad to report to you that a peaceful protest by Thai Krieng workers became violent after police used excessive force on the workers. Please read the following account and write to the Thai Government, condemning their use of force against peacefully assembled workers. A sample letter follows.

On Sunday September 16th, about 200 union members from Thai Krieng Durable Textile Company gathered to march to the home of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. These workers have been locked out since June of 2000, despite an order by the Minister of Labour sending them back to work in October of 2000. For over a year now they have been waiting for the right to return to their jobs after a strike for wage raises in June of 2000. For fifteen months now they have been denied the justice of returning to their jobs and have not even received their legally owed compensation from their employer.

The workers, who were joined by representatives from Assembly of the Poor and by student activists, intended to submit a petition to Thaksin calling for the government to solve their problem by getting the company to:

1) Reinstate 390 workers

2) Cancel the lawsuit of 8 million baht in damages against employees

3) Cancel the lawsuit against the workers for use of the company’s water and electricity

Although the Thaksin government pledged during the election campaign to solve the problems of Thai Krieng workers, there has been no progress made in the six months the government has been in power.

At least 200 police officers met the workers a few hundred meters in front of the Prime Minister’s house. The police had set up two rows of fence to block the workers from reaching the house. Upon learning that the Prime Minister was not home, the police and union leaders initially reached an agreement that the workers would peacefully wait for the Prime Minister to return home. However, remembering how they were attacked while seated occupying their factory, the workers stood up and tried to walk further to the Prime Minister’s house to await his return. This prompted the police to use metal shields to block the workers, but many were able to make it past the first row of metal fences. The police also used pepper spray to stop the workers. Many were injured and four seriously injured to the point of having to go to the hospital.

After the clash, workers retreated to behind the first fence and sat down to wait. A representative from the Prime Minister’s office received the worker’s petition and told them they would hear the Prime Minister’s decision on the matter on Wednesday. Members of Assembly of the Poor and of democracy groups went to Government House on Tuesday to protest the police’s excessive use of violence against the women workers. Government officials met with both employee and employer representatives on Tuesday, but without success at reaching any agreement. Workers also learned on Tuesday that some members of the police are threating to sue Thai Krieng workers for police injuries sustained during the clash. Some police officers complained that workers grabbed their testicles during the struggle, causing injury.

Sample Letter

The Honorable Mr. Thaksin Shinawatra
Prime Minister of Thailand's Office
Government House,
Nakhon Pathom Road,
Bangkok 10300, Thailand.
Fax: +66 2 280 1443

Dear Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra,

The International Community has been following the case of Thai Krieng Durable Union for fifteen months now. For fifteen months we have been following the struggle of middle aged women workers in their quest for justice. Unfortunately, despite months of peaceful wait and protest, the previous Thai Administration was unable to bring an end to their suffering. And, in seven months of power, your government has been unable to bring a satisfactory end to the situation. Providing a handful of workers with 4,000 baht compensation in exchange for abandoning their protest at the Ministry of Labour does not constitute a satisfactory end to the situation.

It is bad enough that these workers have not received the right to return to work; it is worse that they have not received legally owed compensation when many of them have worked for the company for over 20 years. Then, to make matters worse, on Sunday the 16th of September, police used an excessive amount of force against Thai Krieng workers during a peaceful demonstration at your house. Middle aged women workers were beaten with metal shields and sprayed with pepper spray, some at such a close range that they had to go to the hospital. This action was taken despite the fact that the number of police and workers was almost equal.

We deplore the use of violence against workers and demonstrators. Police complaints of injury from workers are a result of their own provocation of violence. The Thai constitution protects the right to peaceful assembly and Thai workers have a right to peacefully gather to meet with elected leaders. We urge you to bring resolution to the Thai Krieng Durable case swiftly and justly.

Sincerely,

6 March 2001
Thai Labour Campaign
by Junya Yimprasert

Nine months of Thai Krieng (Durable) Workers Struggle.

About 60 of 390 Thai Krieng workers are still camped out in front of the basement of Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare building. The union is now involved in several court cases. Most of these involve the employer's suits against the unions for damage to the company and illegal use of water and electricity.

Union members have been forced to appear in court 14 times to deal with only one suit. It is estimated that this suit will take five to six years to resolve. This was obviously a successful employer tactic to tie up the workers in legal proceedings. Eight lawyers have volunteered to look over the Thai Krieng court cases, but it will still take a very long time to resolve.

The workers have waited patiently for the new Minister for Labour to come into office and to oversee their dispute. During this period, about 40-50 workers were no longer able to tolerate the difficulties of living without salary and have resigned with an agreement to receive only 3 months of legally 10 months severance payment.

Out of 532 workers who returned to the factory since 27 October 2000 and were faced with temporary layoffs due to the fire, 105 workers have still not yet been called in to work.

Of those 390 dismissed workers, 60 workers are still conducting ongoing protests with visits from friends from the union who have gone on to take other jobs. The names of many of these workers have been sent to all the factories in the industry which has rendered these workers unable to find jobs in the textile industry. Thus. many workers are under pressure to do jobs in which they are underpaid and provide no legal protection while waiting for their dispute to be settled. Many male workers are driving motorcycle taxis or have found work as guards. Women workers have found work as dish cleaners for restaurants and as domestic helpers, which pay them only about 100 baht a day. Thailand minimum wage is 165 Baht a day in Bangkok and its suburbs.

For those workers who are protesting at the MOL, they are still making small things to sell just to earn income during the protest. Twenty nine workers are now studying an intensive training course on traditional massage provide by the Ministry of Labour. It is possible that the Ministry of Labour wishes to provide them with a new skill set in order to hasten their exit from the Ministry. However, if the Minister really wants to solve the problems of Thai Krieng, he should intervene and order the employer to reinstate the workers and bargain in good faith with the union.

The Deputy Minister for Labour who is in charge on the labour dispute cases has set up a committee to handle the Thai Krieng dispute. The workers have some hope that with this new cabinet, their problem will be solved.

28 Jan 2001
Thai Labour Campaign
by Junya Yimprasert

Thai Krieng Durable Textile Workers are still protesting at the Ministry of Labour. It is now the eighth month of their strike.

The situation should have been resolved after the Ministry of Labour ordered the company to reinstate all the workers on the 26th of October, 2000, citing an article 35 in the Labour Protection Act However, only 532 workers were reinstated. The company refused to reinstate an additional 390 workers, claiming that these workers had been dismissed before the article in the Ministry's order would have been relevant. It is no coincidence that these 390 workers have been the leaders of the push for better wages and the leaders of the strike. These workers still continue their struggle demanding that they all must be reinstated.

Blatant Discrimination Against Union Members

Those who have been reinstated have also faced their own problems with work. On the 18th of November, a fire burnt down one of the buildings of the Thai Durable Textile factory. As a result, on the 23rd of November, the company announced a temporary emergency close down and put 532 workers on unpaid leave. In a blatant act of discrimination, the company put mostly union members on this leave, despite the fact that few of them worked in building A2. On the other hand, the company transferred 200 non-union workers from building A2 to other sectors. The workers placed on leave were told that they could not be paid because the situation was an emergency and that the factory would be reopened on the 23rd of December 2000.

Therefore, the fire should not be considered an emergency crisis and the company should be required to pay every worker their salary during the leave. The labour attache ordered the company to pay the workers that worked in A2 50% of their salary and pay those workers that were not working in A2 building 100% of their salary. However, the company still refused and appealed the case in court and it still has not been resolved

The company only allowed 200 workers to go back to work on the 23rd of December. Despite announcing that 184 workers would be called back on the 8th of January, only 48 workers were allowed to return. At this point, they have promised that 142 workers would be called in on the 1st of February.

In addition to the temporary close down, the factory also removed all the belonging of the 390 dismissed workers without permission from the workers in early January.

"The company ordered construction workers to just pack everything in the same plastic garbage bags. My Buddha statue was placed in my shoes which is very insulting. I lost a couple of my things like my watch and sun glasses. Construction work was occurring at the same time in the building, so the bags are full of dust. I should have had four bags of belonging but there are only 2 bags left," described one worker.

The collaborative store of the union also was also packed up and removed as the union couldn't remove all of the goods in time.

"This is to apply pressure to those 390 workers that still protest at the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare," remarked one worker.

Now many of the workers have brought their belongings to the Ministry of Labour compound --wood and plastic wardrobes, tables, small television sets and plastic bags full of belongings. Many workers said that after 30 years of working these possessions are all they own and they cannot bring them back to their hometowns because they have no money to hire vehicles.

To make matters worse, according to one union committee member, the company owes 5,500,000 baht to the worker's cooperative fund that it is refusing to pay.

Company Tactics and Profit Seeking

The company recently made a move selling 51% of its shares to the Hong Kong based Wing Wah Company through Wing Wah Advisory (Thailand) Limited as reported in the Manager Newspaper on 4th January 2001. Thai Durable Textile Company also has signed a Debt Definitive Restructuring Agreement for 670 million baht worth of debt with the Bangkok Bank on the 28th December 2000. Now the company is engaged in the construction of several new buildings and is ordering new machines.

The selling of shares explains why since the beginning of the protest the company used such blatant violence against the workers - Wing Wah demanded that they will only buy company shares if there is no union.

The company has used a famous lawyer, Mr. Paiboon Thammasatitman, to trick workers into violating the labour law such as to sit in the factory building. The company has then sued these workers for over 3 billion baht. The company knows very well that they will never win this case and get any money from the workers, but it is a technique to bring confusion, difficulty and fear to the workers. It also works to slow down the struggle, as many workers have to stand for trial many times.

Since the workers have not given up the fight even though it has been 8 months, the company has offered 8 million baht to the union committee members to close the case. The union leaders have refused.

One of the things that the company underestimates is the tight relationships of these women workers. Most are over 40 years old and 30% are single. Considering that many of these workers have been working for Thai Durable Textile for more than 20 years, seeing each other every day and sleeping in the same quarters, the company is like a home to them and the union like family. They have sacrificed many of their life's opportunities for the company's growth. Many have not been able to get married due to working 12 hours a day for twenty years in a mostly female environment. It is difficult to have the energy to go out and socialize after long strenuous work days.

It is due to these life sacrifices that workers have made, their close friendship to each other, and their belief in work with dignity and fairness, and the understanding of the importance of the Thai Krieng Union in the Thai labour movement that they continue their struggle.