Murray Hunter: “From my perspective [Asean Economic Community in] 2015 is a myth.”
Yes. The obstacles do seem kind of insurmountable and it was certainly interesting to hear you start to enumerate these obstacles because, frankly, not enough critical analysis seems to get written.
I guess what I am really wondering about is the historical background to the policies to put it all in context, wonder whether any PhD dissertations have been written or researchers working in this area?
[Note: The survey of Southeast Asian economic history in Brown, Ian (1997) Economic change in South East Asia c 1830-1980. OUP (Kuala Lumpur) has a little matrix of cross-Southeast Asian research topics that: 1. have been done and that 2. need to be done in the future, wonder how Malaysian and Southeast Asian agricultural sectors fit into it.]
The point was exactly that extremely idiotic, thoughtless, arrogant guys are in ascendency in the world, for this one in Singapore while the wealth infusion has passed over the taxi driver and his family.
Have’s and have-not’s separation is record high and
exponentially getting wider everyday, global “French Revolution” is a distinct possibility.
Several issues. First, the term ‘wildcat’ is not related to legislation. It is related to whether strikes have been approved by the rules that apply to a particular union’s internal by-laws and constitution. The term may have came from the US but this is the widely accepted definition in trade union circles.
Second, there are just some things that should not be compromised and the law is one of them and Burmese have equal rights under Thai labour law. The civil rights struggle in the US was a struggle based on equality without compromise.
You use the argument that a country’s laws may provide for wages and working conditions that are artificially low. That may very well be but how is that related to equal treatment under the law? The minimum wage in the US is horrible as related to the cost of living.
No struggle should be deprecated. But at some point in time, there has to be a line in the sand. But the line cannot be drawn one factory at a time. There needs to be more broad based organising.
Sean Turnell: “Okamoto’s Economic Disparity in Rural Myanmar is the more path-breaking of the two books, and the culmination of many years of unique field work of exceptional quality. …her specific focus is Burma’s “beans and pulses” sector, the one component of Burmese agriculture that has actually thrived in recent years.”
1. Wonder whether similar micro-focused field research in specific agricultural commodity sectors has been done in the agricultural sectors of other Asean countries? (bibliography? PhD dissertations? reviews of the literature? )
2. The story of how permission to research this sector was obtained would no doubt also be fascinating.
Sean Turnell: “Books about Burma’s economy are rare, and books about economic conditions in Burma’s vast rural hinterland, home to the great majority of its people, rarer still.”
Like creating a whole field from scratch, perhaps. To build this field, given the paucity of scholars involved seems to be a dire need for: 1 cross-comparisons between Asean neighbors; 2. integrating and relating economic history to the contemporary economics.
Fantastic review by one of the few economic historians of Burma!
Shwe Phou Phou: First, your definition of wildcat strike is based on US legislation from the 1930s. It is used differently according to context. In Mae Sot and many other parts of the world wildcat strikes often refer to spontaneous strikes that proceed outside of ‘official’ bureaucratic channels, whether according to labor law or trade union. Since there are no Burmese trade union members in Mae Sot, and the labor law is largely meaningless, it is perhaps a moot point. Second, your contention that migrants are institutionalizing their second class status by negotiating a wage that falls short of the legal minimum totally misses the point. 1) What if legal minimums are artificially low, as is the case in Cambodia and Bangladesh–are workers who negotiate the minimum more successful than those who have essentially doubled their pay? Taking such this legalist/objetive stance overlooks and runs the risk of deprecating the subjective struggles, desires and solidarity of workers. Unfortunately many trade unionists in Thailand and other places would agree with you. 2) This particular strike is part of a much longer process in Mae Sot. 5-10 years ago these workers would have almost certainly been sacked, arrested and/or deported. Many strike leaders have been killed for their efforts in Mae Sot. The fact that these negotiations are taking place at all, in addition to May Day rallies in Mae Sot (from the photo–almost unthinkable ten years ago) is part of a slow process of building a migrant labor movement in Thailand, with possible implications in Myanmar in coming years. But, it’s a movement that has not and is not likely to be supported by Thai workers beyond petition letters and sporadic workshops. Thai nationalism and historiographies of the ‘evil, aggressive Burmese’ run deep.
Regarding comments on the Labour Protection Office and the state more generally, I had the chance to interview LPO officials in Mae Sot several times between 2003-2009. They have consistently and openly encouraged workers in Mae Sot to settle for wages well below the minimum, as have many or most labor activists. While the LPO has, in my view, become less inclined to respond directly to the wishes of employers, they are still far from an unbiased mediator in capital-labor relations–an idealized remnant of Fordism that’s probably never existed in Thailand. Regardless, it’s inspiring to hear of cases of workers taking things into their own hands, and this has important implications beyond this individual factory. Unfortunately, however, the real power brokers in Mae Sot are the police and military (see http://www.scribd.com/doc/57568884/Arnold-Pickles-Global-Work-Antipode). They create a climate of fear for workers, and ‘inspect’ factories and extract bribes from managers/owners for employing unregistered migrants. This policing leads to very precarious work and community life for migrants, and a less than ideal situation for many employers. So, while it’s important to target the LPO, the border security force is critical in fundamentally changing the often severe migrant exploitation in Mae Sot and other parts of Thailand. Easy to say, of course…
If you are truly concerned about the plight of Burmese workers in Thailand, what are you going to do to make a difference to ensure that events as those described in the following news article are never repeated? Even if you are an ardent proponent of capitalism, I am relatively certain you don’t condone slavery, right?
Six paragraphs which can be summed up in two words: AMAZING video!
As a former immigrant worker (non-PRC) in Singapore, let me say that I think the hypothesis sounds rather forced. This guy was simply extremely idiotic, thoughtless, arrogant. Such an extreme event provokes extreme analysis and the commenters on Internet forums would have duly latched onto the ‘PRC’ factor. There were 197 deaths on the roads in Singapore in 2011.
If for some reason the video won’t open, the guy in the Ferrari was going through a red light at well over 100km/h, possibly closer to 200km/h, and hit the taxi square-on. A dashboard cam on a car in perfect position behind the taxi caught the whole thing. Reports say a female passenger in the Ferrari survived. Amazing.
Militant unions supported by liberal Socialist politicians can surely achieve better working conditions for their members. But without actual market-driven real-gains that union-driven better-conditions are just short term gains. It wouldn’t last too long.
Look at the Europe’s PIGGS countries. Greece is the best example. Socialist heavens are coming down to hell. Money has to come from somewhere. Without productivity increases and real profits the individual companies and a nation can go bankrupt and the workers will have to pay with the ultimate price, the real job losses.
Powerful unions can kill the businesses and bankrupt a nation.
Even in America the unions almost killed or are now killing the manufacturing industry. Mighty General Motors almost died, it nearly did!
billy d LM is a not an internal matter! Its a matter of universal ‘stds’ of human rights and freedom from an unjust barbaric law which has not moral validity. Thai law and culture is meglomaniac and delusional- why does not everyone in the whole world love our king? yes I can think of 112 reasons…
“United Nations Human Rights Council Member States expressed widespread concerns about the sharp increase in lèse-majesté and computer crime charges and the serious impact on freedom of expression.
Recommendations to Thailand to repeal or review the lèse-majesté law (Article 112 of Thailand’s Penal Code) and the Computer Crime Act (2007) were made by fourteen member states, including Western European countries, New Zealand, Canada, Brazil and Indonesia.
Both the United Kingdom and France called for Thailand to enable the public to debate the lèse-majesté law without fear of prosecution. In recent years, even the discussion of the lèse-majesté law risks arrest.”
It’s heartening to see Brazil and Indonesia sign up to that – both are hardly “Western” and their inclusion in that list broadens the international base for calls for LM reform.
To answer the second half of your opening point – actually, it’s yes and no. If Thailand fails to reform such draconian laws and the way it enacts them then it has the possibility to foster extremism on both sides (something we’re already witnessing) which could lead to further conflict with one potential outcome being the destabilising of the region. The treatment of Ah Kong has created more anger, was easily avoidable and served no interest whatsoever accept to heighten tensions. All these things happened internally and were self-inflicted, Thai on Thai.
So the international community quietly pressing Thailand into reform is no bad thing. In fact, if they have any interests in Thailand and SE Asia it’s probably in the self-interest of those countries to do so. It is actually the rigid and slavish maintenance of the status quo by a couple of power groups that is fostering instability, not the other way around. Do these groups still represent the desires of the majority of Thais? Election results suggest otherwise. Change is on its way. In that context the international community has a responsibility to support those Thais, such as Nitirat, you are already calling for reform (to infer, as you have done, that all calls for reform of LM are external is a complete misrepresentation and dismissive of those taking huge risks calling for reform. Those Thais deserve our support not our sneers). If they don’t they could, instead, be facing a revolution or civil war.
I spent over thirty years in the trade union movement in the US and I have been in Thailand continuously for nearly seven years. I have written country reports for the ITUC for the past five years on countries in the region. I am not an expert but I do have a fairly good grasp of what is happening with workers and unions in the region.
First, as for Thein Sein, I qualified my statement with ‘if’. I am probably as jaundiced as you about the current regime. But remittances are an important part of Burma’s economy. Thein Sein could improve Burma’s economy by pressuring the Thai government to provide better pay and working conditions for migrant workers from Burma. Whether that happens or I am being dilusional, is a different matter.
As for the 2010 massacre/protests in Thailand, I initially didn’t understand why several prominent Thai trade union leaders supporting the ‘yellow’ shirts. But it was later explained to me that it is the result of former PM Thaksin’s initiative to privatise public enterprises. As things stand now, it seems to me like the leaders of the ‘red’ shirts have been co-opted. Ministers in suits and ties with their own pockets to line.
As with trade unions in most countries, we are our own worst enemies. Divided, turf wars over already organized workers, and no clear vision for organising or programs to benefit workers. As Keynes once said, ‘we all tend to think in the short term, because in the long term, we are all dead.’
Shwe Phou Phou,
The information about T.U’s in Thailand has been supplied by very few people as they themselves are not Trade Unionists. The massacre in 2010 where the majority of unions did not participate and infact tried to stop members joining in the call for democracy told me a lot.
I do not share your optomism about the reforming Thein Sein or his illigitimate govt. He does not care a damn what happens to the Burmese people abroad. His pockets must have burst with all the corrupt practices very recently.
Aung Moe,
I am happy that your experiences in the labour market are positive. However letting market forces deal with workers pay and conditions one might as well stood on the deck of the “Titanic”. Markets are only interested in making profit. In good times the workers can fare well. But when the reccession hits Thailand the workers always suffer. It is in the nature of the beast for “BOOM and BUST” to occur in every capitalist economy.
there’s a lot of naive commentary here. Lese Majeste is not a matter of ‘international affairs’ as Stuart suggests. It is an internal matter. And considerations about it by the government of the day are made for internal reasons, not due to ‘international pressure’. Yingluck is coming to Australia in coming weeks and I can tell you for a fact that the Aus PM has been internally briefed not to mention lese majeste or raise any such sensitive issues. Its simply not politics for Western countries to do so, whether we like it or not.
Yes, Thais care to a degree what others think. But they care a lot more about maintaining the present apparatus in place which enables them to maintain power, including the mystification of the monarchy and the use of lese majeste to enforce this.
The other point is this unidirectional idea of ‘influence’. There’s a lot of people these days who think that western contact will liberalise recalcitrant countries (like Thailand or Burma). I’m one who is just as interested in mapping out whether the influence is in fact just as, if not stronger, in the other direction.
The majority of workers in Thailand have long labored in work places that provide few non-wage benefits, where trade unions have been weak and repressed, and where occupational health and safety problems have been routine. Recent data show that more than a third of workers continue to work for more than 50 hours a week, longer than the legal maximum. Meanwhile, wages have remained relatively low and static, despite productivity increases. The official minimum wage has declined in real terms between 2000 and 2008 (at the highest level of the variable minimum), while private sector wages rose by just 1.7% per year over the same period.
Meanwhile, since 1960, capital’s share of GDP has increased markedly while labor’s share has declined. Part of this is due to the declining significance of agriculture, but productivity increases have accrued almost entirely to capital through increased profits.
Since 2000, profit rates have increased from about 5% to almost 11%. In other words, there has been a redistribution of income to capital. Even the World Bank came to the conclusion that the major source of inequality in Thailand was to be found in profits.
Rich Chinese and all other rich or going-to-be-rich foreigners to come in and do whatever they want. No rule, no constraint. Land robbery, eviction, subsistence wage, poor working condition, pollution, all welcome.
For those people who read your article and have been involved in the trade union movement, they would interpret ‘wildcat’ in the manner that I have and mistakenly conclude that a union organization exists at the enterprise. Whether it has been used in the past is not relevant for clarity in describing the situation.
Aung Moe,
A few benevolent employers do not make a bad system good. The garment industry in the third world are the biggest exploiters of human capital with no equal. In Mae Sot, many of the workers are locked in the factory at night. While Thai workers may have mobility in looking for jobs with higher pay and better working conditions, this is not the case for the vast majority of migrant workers because they are undocumented. Employers prey on the undocumented because they can be exploited to a greater extent than any other source of workers. Then there are the unscrupulous labour brokers who are the global bottom feeders perpetuating this system. If there were any morality in the owners of the factories in Mae Sot, they would all be following Thai labour law and treating their workers with dignity.
Vikram Nehru of Carnegie commenting on Malaysia’s upcoming general election over at the East Asia Forum blog:
All the tea leaves suggest a close race, perhaps closer than the one in 2008, when the opposition won 5 of 13 state legislatures and over one-third of the seats in parliament, denying the Barisan Nasional a two-thirds majority.
Best not to tempt fate. The Commission allegedly awarded Obama as an incentive but managed to make a fool of itself. They have form as Nich pointed out the example of Kissinger, a true blue peacenik. With Thein Sein they’d fall flat on their face and it would serve them right. Anyhow ASSK already pipped the post in this particular arena by a long shot, and TS knows it.
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Agriculture in Malaysia’s economic and social transformation
Murray Hunter: “From my perspective [Asean Economic Community in] 2015 is a myth.”
Yes. The obstacles do seem kind of insurmountable and it was certainly interesting to hear you start to enumerate these obstacles because, frankly, not enough critical analysis seems to get written.
I guess what I am really wondering about is the historical background to the policies to put it all in context, wonder whether any PhD dissertations have been written or researchers working in this area?
[Note: The survey of Southeast Asian economic history in Brown, Ian (1997) Economic change in South East Asia c 1830-1980. OUP (Kuala Lumpur) has a little matrix of cross-Southeast Asian research topics that: 1. have been done and that 2. need to be done in the future, wonder how Malaysian and Southeast Asian agricultural sectors fit into it.]
Rising Anti-China resentment in Singapore
Jon,
The point was exactly that extremely idiotic, thoughtless, arrogant guys are in ascendency in the world, for this one in Singapore while the wealth infusion has passed over the taxi driver and his family.
Have’s and have-not’s separation is record high and
exponentially getting wider everyday, global “French Revolution” is a distinct possibility.
Anatomy of a Burmese migrant strike
Dennis,
Several issues. First, the term ‘wildcat’ is not related to legislation. It is related to whether strikes have been approved by the rules that apply to a particular union’s internal by-laws and constitution. The term may have came from the US but this is the widely accepted definition in trade union circles.
Second, there are just some things that should not be compromised and the law is one of them and Burmese have equal rights under Thai labour law. The civil rights struggle in the US was a struggle based on equality without compromise.
You use the argument that a country’s laws may provide for wages and working conditions that are artificially low. That may very well be but how is that related to equal treatment under the law? The minimum wage in the US is horrible as related to the cost of living.
No struggle should be deprecated. But at some point in time, there has to be a line in the sand. But the line cannot be drawn one factory at a time. There needs to be more broad based organising.
Review of Economic Disparity and of Economic Transition
Sean Turnell: “Okamoto’s Economic Disparity in Rural Myanmar is the more path-breaking of the two books, and the culmination of many years of unique field work of exceptional quality. …her specific focus is Burma’s “beans and pulses” sector, the one component of Burmese agriculture that has actually thrived in recent years.”
1. Wonder whether similar micro-focused field research in specific agricultural commodity sectors has been done in the agricultural sectors of other Asean countries? (bibliography? PhD dissertations? reviews of the literature? )
2. The story of how permission to research this sector was obtained would no doubt also be fascinating.
Sean Turnell: “Books about Burma’s economy are rare, and books about economic conditions in Burma’s vast rural hinterland, home to the great majority of its people, rarer still.”
Like creating a whole field from scratch, perhaps. To build this field, given the paucity of scholars involved seems to be a dire need for: 1 cross-comparisons between Asean neighbors; 2. integrating and relating economic history to the contemporary economics.
Fantastic review by one of the few economic historians of Burma!
Anatomy of a Burmese migrant strike
Thanks for the report, Stephen.
Shwe Phou Phou: First, your definition of wildcat strike is based on US legislation from the 1930s. It is used differently according to context. In Mae Sot and many other parts of the world wildcat strikes often refer to spontaneous strikes that proceed outside of ‘official’ bureaucratic channels, whether according to labor law or trade union. Since there are no Burmese trade union members in Mae Sot, and the labor law is largely meaningless, it is perhaps a moot point. Second, your contention that migrants are institutionalizing their second class status by negotiating a wage that falls short of the legal minimum totally misses the point. 1) What if legal minimums are artificially low, as is the case in Cambodia and Bangladesh–are workers who negotiate the minimum more successful than those who have essentially doubled their pay? Taking such this legalist/objetive stance overlooks and runs the risk of deprecating the subjective struggles, desires and solidarity of workers. Unfortunately many trade unionists in Thailand and other places would agree with you. 2) This particular strike is part of a much longer process in Mae Sot. 5-10 years ago these workers would have almost certainly been sacked, arrested and/or deported. Many strike leaders have been killed for their efforts in Mae Sot. The fact that these negotiations are taking place at all, in addition to May Day rallies in Mae Sot (from the photo–almost unthinkable ten years ago) is part of a slow process of building a migrant labor movement in Thailand, with possible implications in Myanmar in coming years. But, it’s a movement that has not and is not likely to be supported by Thai workers beyond petition letters and sporadic workshops. Thai nationalism and historiographies of the ‘evil, aggressive Burmese’ run deep.
Regarding comments on the Labour Protection Office and the state more generally, I had the chance to interview LPO officials in Mae Sot several times between 2003-2009. They have consistently and openly encouraged workers in Mae Sot to settle for wages well below the minimum, as have many or most labor activists. While the LPO has, in my view, become less inclined to respond directly to the wishes of employers, they are still far from an unbiased mediator in capital-labor relations–an idealized remnant of Fordism that’s probably never existed in Thailand. Regardless, it’s inspiring to hear of cases of workers taking things into their own hands, and this has important implications beyond this individual factory. Unfortunately, however, the real power brokers in Mae Sot are the police and military (see http://www.scribd.com/doc/57568884/Arnold-Pickles-Global-Work-Antipode). They create a climate of fear for workers, and ‘inspect’ factories and extract bribes from managers/owners for employing unregistered migrants. This policing leads to very precarious work and community life for migrants, and a less than ideal situation for many employers. So, while it’s important to target the LPO, the border security force is critical in fundamentally changing the often severe migrant exploitation in Mae Sot and other parts of Thailand. Easy to say, of course…
Anatomy of a Burmese migrant strike
Aung Moe,
If you are truly concerned about the plight of Burmese workers in Thailand, what are you going to do to make a difference to ensure that events as those described in the following news article are never repeated? Even if you are an ardent proponent of capitalism, I am relatively certain you don’t condone slavery, right?
Burmese ‘Slaves’ Rescued from Thai Factory
http://www.irrawaddy.org/archives/4445
Rising Anti-China resentment in Singapore
Six paragraphs which can be summed up in two words: AMAZING video!
As a former immigrant worker (non-PRC) in Singapore, let me say that I think the hypothesis sounds rather forced. This guy was simply extremely idiotic, thoughtless, arrogant. Such an extreme event provokes extreme analysis and the commenters on Internet forums would have duly latched onto the ‘PRC’ factor. There were 197 deaths on the roads in Singapore in 2011.
If for some reason the video won’t open, the guy in the Ferrari was going through a red light at well over 100km/h, possibly closer to 200km/h, and hit the taxi square-on. A dashboard cam on a car in perfect position behind the taxi caught the whole thing. Reports say a female passenger in the Ferrari survived. Amazing.
Anatomy of a Burmese migrant strike
Militant unions supported by liberal Socialist politicians can surely achieve better working conditions for their members. But without actual market-driven real-gains that union-driven better-conditions are just short term gains. It wouldn’t last too long.
Look at the Europe’s PIGGS countries. Greece is the best example. Socialist heavens are coming down to hell. Money has to come from somewhere. Without productivity increases and real profits the individual companies and a nation can go bankrupt and the workers will have to pay with the ultimate price, the real job losses.
Powerful unions can kill the businesses and bankrupt a nation.
Even in America the unions almost killed or are now killing the manufacturing industry. Mighty General Motors almost died, it nearly did!
Anatomy of a Burmese migrant strike
http://www.voanews.com/content/burmese-film-raises-plight-of-migrant-workers/667045.html
Burmese Film Focuses on Plight of Migrant Workers
Lese majeste makes it to UK parliament
billy d LM is a not an internal matter! Its a matter of universal ‘stds’ of human rights and freedom from an unjust barbaric law which has not moral validity. Thai law and culture is meglomaniac and delusional- why does not everyone in the whole world love our king? yes I can think of 112 reasons…
Lese majeste makes it to UK parliament
Billy D
“there’s a lot of naive commentary here. Lese Majeste is not a matter of ‘international affairs’ as Stuart suggests. It is an internal matter.”
In answer to the first part of your opening point please read this which suggests the opposite has occurred and lese majeste is already on the international agenda. I guess if the Australian government adopts a more cowardly approach that’s their choice. http://www.article19.org/resources.php/resource/2761/en/un:-spotlight-on-thailand’s-lèse-majesté-law-and-computer-crimes-act
“United Nations Human Rights Council Member States expressed widespread concerns about the sharp increase in lèse-majesté and computer crime charges and the serious impact on freedom of expression.
Recommendations to Thailand to repeal or review the lèse-majesté law (Article 112 of Thailand’s Penal Code) and the Computer Crime Act (2007) were made by fourteen member states, including Western European countries, New Zealand, Canada, Brazil and Indonesia.
Both the United Kingdom and France called for Thailand to enable the public to debate the lèse-majesté law without fear of prosecution. In recent years, even the discussion of the lèse-majesté law risks arrest.”
It’s heartening to see Brazil and Indonesia sign up to that – both are hardly “Western” and their inclusion in that list broadens the international base for calls for LM reform.
To answer the second half of your opening point – actually, it’s yes and no. If Thailand fails to reform such draconian laws and the way it enacts them then it has the possibility to foster extremism on both sides (something we’re already witnessing) which could lead to further conflict with one potential outcome being the destabilising of the region. The treatment of Ah Kong has created more anger, was easily avoidable and served no interest whatsoever accept to heighten tensions. All these things happened internally and were self-inflicted, Thai on Thai.
So the international community quietly pressing Thailand into reform is no bad thing. In fact, if they have any interests in Thailand and SE Asia it’s probably in the self-interest of those countries to do so. It is actually the rigid and slavish maintenance of the status quo by a couple of power groups that is fostering instability, not the other way around. Do these groups still represent the desires of the majority of Thais? Election results suggest otherwise. Change is on its way. In that context the international community has a responsibility to support those Thais, such as Nitirat, you are already calling for reform (to infer, as you have done, that all calls for reform of LM are external is a complete misrepresentation and dismissive of those taking huge risks calling for reform. Those Thais deserve our support not our sneers). If they don’t they could, instead, be facing a revolution or civil war.
Anatomy of a Burmese migrant strike
Roy,
I spent over thirty years in the trade union movement in the US and I have been in Thailand continuously for nearly seven years. I have written country reports for the ITUC for the past five years on countries in the region. I am not an expert but I do have a fairly good grasp of what is happening with workers and unions in the region.
First, as for Thein Sein, I qualified my statement with ‘if’. I am probably as jaundiced as you about the current regime. But remittances are an important part of Burma’s economy. Thein Sein could improve Burma’s economy by pressuring the Thai government to provide better pay and working conditions for migrant workers from Burma. Whether that happens or I am being dilusional, is a different matter.
As for the 2010 massacre/protests in Thailand, I initially didn’t understand why several prominent Thai trade union leaders supporting the ‘yellow’ shirts. But it was later explained to me that it is the result of former PM Thaksin’s initiative to privatise public enterprises. As things stand now, it seems to me like the leaders of the ‘red’ shirts have been co-opted. Ministers in suits and ties with their own pockets to line.
As with trade unions in most countries, we are our own worst enemies. Divided, turf wars over already organized workers, and no clear vision for organising or programs to benefit workers. As Keynes once said, ‘we all tend to think in the short term, because in the long term, we are all dead.’
Anatomy of a Burmese migrant strike
Shwe Phou Phou,
The information about T.U’s in Thailand has been supplied by very few people as they themselves are not Trade Unionists. The massacre in 2010 where the majority of unions did not participate and infact tried to stop members joining in the call for democracy told me a lot.
I do not share your optomism about the reforming Thein Sein or his illigitimate govt. He does not care a damn what happens to the Burmese people abroad. His pockets must have burst with all the corrupt practices very recently.
Aung Moe,
I am happy that your experiences in the labour market are positive. However letting market forces deal with workers pay and conditions one might as well stood on the deck of the “Titanic”. Markets are only interested in making profit. In good times the workers can fare well. But when the reccession hits Thailand the workers always suffer. It is in the nature of the beast for “BOOM and BUST” to occur in every capitalist economy.
Lese majeste makes it to UK parliament
there’s a lot of naive commentary here. Lese Majeste is not a matter of ‘international affairs’ as Stuart suggests. It is an internal matter. And considerations about it by the government of the day are made for internal reasons, not due to ‘international pressure’. Yingluck is coming to Australia in coming weeks and I can tell you for a fact that the Aus PM has been internally briefed not to mention lese majeste or raise any such sensitive issues. Its simply not politics for Western countries to do so, whether we like it or not.
Yes, Thais care to a degree what others think. But they care a lot more about maintaining the present apparatus in place which enables them to maintain power, including the mystification of the monarchy and the use of lese majeste to enforce this.
The other point is this unidirectional idea of ‘influence’. There’s a lot of people these days who think that western contact will liberalise recalcitrant countries (like Thailand or Burma). I’m one who is just as interested in mapping out whether the influence is in fact just as, if not stronger, in the other direction.
Anatomy of a Burmese migrant strike
Yes Aung Moe, the market has worked.
The majority of workers in Thailand have long labored in work places that provide few non-wage benefits, where trade unions have been weak and repressed, and where occupational health and safety problems have been routine. Recent data show that more than a third of workers continue to work for more than 50 hours a week, longer than the legal maximum. Meanwhile, wages have remained relatively low and static, despite productivity increases. The official minimum wage has declined in real terms between 2000 and 2008 (at the highest level of the variable minimum), while private sector wages rose by just 1.7% per year over the same period.
Meanwhile, since 1960, capital’s share of GDP has increased markedly while labor’s share has declined. Part of this is due to the declining significance of agriculture, but productivity increases have accrued almost entirely to capital through increased profits.
Since 2000, profit rates have increased from about 5% to almost 11%. In other words, there has been a redistribution of income to capital. Even the World Bank came to the conclusion that the major source of inequality in Thailand was to be found in profits.
Yes, the market has worked well for business.
Rising Anti-China resentment in Singapore
Funny that.
In Burma, this is exactly what we want.
Rich Chinese and all other rich or going-to-be-rich foreigners to come in and do whatever they want. No rule, no constraint. Land robbery, eviction, subsistence wage, poor working condition, pollution, all welcome.
The military wants it.
The venerable oppsition wants it.
The vocal exile community wants it.
May be we should not have video-cameras.
Anatomy of a Burmese migrant strike
Stephen,
For those people who read your article and have been involved in the trade union movement, they would interpret ‘wildcat’ in the manner that I have and mistakenly conclude that a union organization exists at the enterprise. Whether it has been used in the past is not relevant for clarity in describing the situation.
Aung Moe,
A few benevolent employers do not make a bad system good. The garment industry in the third world are the biggest exploiters of human capital with no equal. In Mae Sot, many of the workers are locked in the factory at night. While Thai workers may have mobility in looking for jobs with higher pay and better working conditions, this is not the case for the vast majority of migrant workers because they are undocumented. Employers prey on the undocumented because they can be exploited to a greater extent than any other source of workers. Then there are the unscrupulous labour brokers who are the global bottom feeders perpetuating this system. If there were any morality in the owners of the factories in Mae Sot, they would all be following Thai labour law and treating their workers with dignity.
Can Pakatan Rakyat take over Putrajaya?
Vikram Nehru of Carnegie commenting on Malaysia’s upcoming general election over at the East Asia Forum blog:
A Nobel Peace Prize for Thein Sein?
Best not to tempt fate. The Commission allegedly awarded Obama as an incentive but managed to make a fool of itself. They have form as Nich pointed out the example of Kissinger, a true blue peacenik. With Thein Sein they’d fall flat on their face and it would serve them right. Anyhow ASSK already pipped the post in this particular arena by a long shot, and TS knows it.
Who killed Italian photographer Fabio Polenghi?
Tom
Those photos have been around for a while – the most effective place to publish them would be Thai Rath, Khao Sod or one of the big Thai dailies.
Another alternative would be distribute via the Red Shirts own networks.