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9 August, 2005ICEM News release No. 28/2001
As Thai unions prepare for a protest march in Bangkok tomorrow, industrial unions worldwide are declaring solidarity with their main demands.
Key goals of the demonstration are wage rises and the scrapping of a draft anti-labour law.
Organised by the electricity workers, the march will bring together representatives of 30 Thai unions. It will start at Bangkok's Victory monument, announced Banlue Hengprasert, leader of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) Labour Union. He said the march will end with a demonstration in front of the Labour Ministry, at around 6 pm local time.
LIVING WAGE CALL
On pay, the protesters will call for the legal minimum wage to be raised to 180 baht per day (just under four US dollars). They want the same rate to apply nationwide. At present, Bangkok and five suburban provinces have a daily minimum rate of 165 Baht. Six other provinces are on 143 Baht a day. In the rest of Thailand, the daily rate is 133 Baht.
In practice, the minimum is often the maximum. Most Thai workers are on the legal minimum, but many in small- and medium-scale enterprises are actually paid below it. The legal minimum rate is set in national negotiations between the employers, the government and the various trade union confederations. Due partly to internal divisions, the national union centres have often been at a disadvantage in these talks, and there is widespread dissatisfaction with the minimum rates. In Bangkok, a family cannot live on much less than 500 Baht a day.
Where industrial or company-level unions exist, their scope for bargaining with individual employers is severely circumscribed. They can, however, negotiate on annual increments, shift allowances and various fringe benefits. In some industries, unions have been able to secure substantial improvements in total real earnings. Thus, while average industrial earnings in 1998 were 4174.82 Baht per month, the figures for the same year in the paper manufacturing, chemical and food processing industries were 7998.91 Baht, 6721.42 Baht and 5412.89 Baht respectively.
Now, though, many Thai employers have taken to demanding give-backs - in other words, cuts in allowances and benefits. And so, at a time of mounting inflation, average total earnings may actually fall.
ANTI-UNION LAW OPPOSED
Worse still, a law now in the pipeline would further weaken collective bargaining and the right to strike. This would inevitably depress wages, so the draft law is a second focus of tomorrow's protests.
The Thai government has been pushing hard to get its Labour Relations Act on to the statute book. The law would give the labour minister sweeping new powers to impose arbitration. In effect, he could end any labour dispute by decree. He could also order unions not to demand wage rises - and employers not to pay them. These powers could be invoked for reasons of "national security" or "public order" but also in the case of undefined "serious economic problems".
Behind these harsh provisions, local commentators see the hand of the International Monetary Fund. Complying with IMF conditions - and appeasing foreign investors - is a major plank of Thai government policy during the current economic downturn. But if the government presses ahead with the legislation, it is likely to run into opposition both from the unions and from the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). As it stands, the law would breach ILO Conventions on collective bargaining and the right to strike.
The unions want the government to drop the legislation, and instead to adopt a union draft that protects worker rights.
Thailand is a touchstone for living standards and labour rights in newly industrialised countries. Asian and global industrial unions have therefore swung behind the Thai marchers' demands. Meeting today, the Asia-Pacific regional committee of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) declared full solidarity with the Thai unions. Similar statements are likely this week from the ICEM's global Executive and its women's committee, both of which will be meeting in Brussels.
The EGAT Labour Union, which is organising the Bangkok demonstration, has applied for affiliation to the ICEM - a request that will come up for approval by the ICEM Executive this week. A number of the other Thai unions involved are already ICEM affiliates. Action on the Thai wage issue, in particular, was discussed during the ICEM Asia-Pacific regional women's conference in Bangkok this March.
Other demands at tomorrow's march in Bangkok will be the immediate implementation of an unemployment insurance scheme; the extension of social insurance - including hospital coverage - to all workers; the doubling of child welfare payments; and the ending of a long lock-out at a textile factory.
The unions have repeatedly put all the demands to the Labour Minister and his deputy, but have not received any adequate response.
Key goals of the demonstration are wage rises and the scrapping of a draft anti-labour law.
Organised by the electricity workers, the march will bring together representatives of 30 Thai unions. It will start at Bangkok's Victory monument, announced Banlue Hengprasert, leader of the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT) Labour Union. He said the march will end with a demonstration in front of the Labour Ministry, at around 6 pm local time.
LIVING WAGE CALL
On pay, the protesters will call for the legal minimum wage to be raised to 180 baht per day (just under four US dollars). They want the same rate to apply nationwide. At present, Bangkok and five suburban provinces have a daily minimum rate of 165 Baht. Six other provinces are on 143 Baht a day. In the rest of Thailand, the daily rate is 133 Baht.
In practice, the minimum is often the maximum. Most Thai workers are on the legal minimum, but many in small- and medium-scale enterprises are actually paid below it. The legal minimum rate is set in national negotiations between the employers, the government and the various trade union confederations. Due partly to internal divisions, the national union centres have often been at a disadvantage in these talks, and there is widespread dissatisfaction with the minimum rates. In Bangkok, a family cannot live on much less than 500 Baht a day.
Where industrial or company-level unions exist, their scope for bargaining with individual employers is severely circumscribed. They can, however, negotiate on annual increments, shift allowances and various fringe benefits. In some industries, unions have been able to secure substantial improvements in total real earnings. Thus, while average industrial earnings in 1998 were 4174.82 Baht per month, the figures for the same year in the paper manufacturing, chemical and food processing industries were 7998.91 Baht, 6721.42 Baht and 5412.89 Baht respectively.
Now, though, many Thai employers have taken to demanding give-backs - in other words, cuts in allowances and benefits. And so, at a time of mounting inflation, average total earnings may actually fall.
ANTI-UNION LAW OPPOSED
Worse still, a law now in the pipeline would further weaken collective bargaining and the right to strike. This would inevitably depress wages, so the draft law is a second focus of tomorrow's protests.
The Thai government has been pushing hard to get its Labour Relations Act on to the statute book. The law would give the labour minister sweeping new powers to impose arbitration. In effect, he could end any labour dispute by decree. He could also order unions not to demand wage rises - and employers not to pay them. These powers could be invoked for reasons of "national security" or "public order" but also in the case of undefined "serious economic problems".
Behind these harsh provisions, local commentators see the hand of the International Monetary Fund. Complying with IMF conditions - and appeasing foreign investors - is a major plank of Thai government policy during the current economic downturn. But if the government presses ahead with the legislation, it is likely to run into opposition both from the unions and from the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO). As it stands, the law would breach ILO Conventions on collective bargaining and the right to strike.
The unions want the government to drop the legislation, and instead to adopt a union draft that protects worker rights.
Thailand is a touchstone for living standards and labour rights in newly industrialised countries. Asian and global industrial unions have therefore swung behind the Thai marchers' demands. Meeting today, the Asia-Pacific regional committee of the 20-million-strong International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine and General Workers' Unions (ICEM) declared full solidarity with the Thai unions. Similar statements are likely this week from the ICEM's global Executive and its women's committee, both of which will be meeting in Brussels.
The EGAT Labour Union, which is organising the Bangkok demonstration, has applied for affiliation to the ICEM - a request that will come up for approval by the ICEM Executive this week. A number of the other Thai unions involved are already ICEM affiliates. Action on the Thai wage issue, in particular, was discussed during the ICEM Asia-Pacific regional women's conference in Bangkok this March.
Other demands at tomorrow's march in Bangkok will be the immediate implementation of an unemployment insurance scheme; the extension of social insurance - including hospital coverage - to all workers; the doubling of child welfare payments; and the ending of a long lock-out at a textile factory.
The unions have repeatedly put all the demands to the Labour Minister and his deputy, but have not received any adequate response.