Burmese Language
Rangoon workers stage mass strike
More than 1,500 workers at a factory in Rangoon have braved the heavy-handed reputation of Burmese authorities to go on strike, demanding an increase to their meagre salary.
The men and women of Taiyi shoe factory, who are now four days into their strike, have cried foul of the unfeasibly low wages which see them earn just $US0.70 for a 12-hour day.
Factory owners yesterday agreed to raise the hourly pay by a fractional 15 kyat ($US0.01), but the strike continues.
“The workers said they wouldn’t start working until they get 75 kyat [$US0.08] per hour,” said a source close to the workers. “The factory sounds the siren [for workers to begin their day] at 7am but instead of going into the factory, the workers are sitting outside continuing the strike.”
Four police vehicles are reportedly stationed at the top of Kanaung Minthargyi Street which leads to the factory in Hlaing Tharyar industrial zone. Civilian vehicles have been blocked from entering the compound.
Strikes by some 700 workers at two garment factories in Rangoon, the United World factory and Oscar factory, last month met with success after employers agreed to their demands for better working conditions.
And just over a year ago a series of workers’ strikes rocked factories in Rangoon, and led to calls for stronger labour union laws in Burma. That may soon be realised, given a recent announcement that a new Trade Union Act has been drafted.
Unions have been legally allowed in Burma, although a clause in the 2008 constitution states that their formation is conditioned on not being “contrary to the laws enacted for [Burma’s] security, prevalence of law and order, community peace and tranquillity, or public order and morality”. The subsequent definitions for these criteria are vague.
More than 30 labour activists, including eight female members of the Federation of Trade Unions Burma (FTUB), are imprisoned in Burma out of a total of more than 2,150 political prisoners. Perceived dissent in Burma is often punished by lengthy jail terms.
Tags: burma, factory, myanmar, rangoon, strike
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As a Rangoon garment factory manager recently told a lunch-time meeting arranged by Green Members of the European Parliament, the low wages paid in her factory were primarily a result of Western sanctions and the higher costs which these sanctions brought. Problems included the denial of the US market, removal by the EU of GSP preferences, additional transaction costs resulting from exclusion from access to US$ financial services, the greater need to employ agents and middlemen and other related costs which made it so difficult for them to compete with Thai, Cambodian and Vietnamese factories producing the same goods. In short, Burmese workers suffer because of sanctions in sectors which are of no interest at all to the regime and their cronies because the returns are so poor.
I suppose thats why Cuba has an HDI score, according to the UNDP, the same as Spain and greater than Hong Kong….yeh sanctions really affect their human development, grow up Derek, just admit that you are supporting murderous dictators who have impoverished their country and go and look for your ill gotten gains somewhere else….
No Labor Unions are allowed in Burma. So, workers cannot protect their labor rights. Authorities are corrupted and used to stand with the business owners. In brief, no law and order in Burma to protect the ordinary citizens including workers.Even law courts become oppressive tools. So, it is natural to face such workers’ strikes in an unfair society.
Rod. The truth hurts, which is why people like you can only resort to personal smears. You have no arguments, only invective. Clive Parker wrote about this recently in DvB. He had people like you very much in mind.
Firstly,mismanagement of army. Second is sanction. Third is disunity between our people.
Shame on you Old man Derek Tonkin, it’s ridiculous to blame it on sanctions.
Have some empathy towards our poor
people, there is karma. As the
Burmese saying goes you already
have one foot on the grave
yard, you will face worse hardship in your next life. Also everyone knows you are a junta paid mouthpiece. Even a
retarded person knows the workers
are getting a bum deal. And for
you to conveniently blame on
sanctions obviously shows you
are a person without integrity
or conscience.
Derek, Rod’s arguments seem to be the most factual on here: sanctions don’t affect the population’s HDI, that may not be wealth but it is not poverty as we witness in Burma, isn’t that the truth….does it hurt you? is there something you want to tell us?
All sanction supporters, do you think that sanctions will finally bring Democracy in Burma? Forget it. The only thing that sanctions can produce is deep poverty in Burma. If there are many local and foreign companies in Burma, the population can find jobs easier and have better lives. The western world cares human rights, so if there are many western factories, industries, and enterprises in Burma, the Burmese can earn much better than now. Stop this horrible sanctions before burma falls into bottomless pit!!! These sanction supporters should live in the Burmese poor families so that they will understand the hardship that the ordinary people are facing every single day. So don’t stick to the old ineffective purnishment, sanctions! Be open to other option! Study the world politics! The dictators don’t care the embargo. I am buddhist, so I understand the meaning of ‘karma’. But whatever happens to us, we should not blame on karma. As soon as the sanctions are lifted, the karma of burmese people will be better. I am sick of looking at my country so poor among the economically developped nations in South East Asia. Burma is more than 50 years backward from many points of view. The poorer burma becomes, the more young people will go abroad for jobs. To create developped country, these young people should be able to invest their time on eduction instead of struggling for the survival.
I applaud these brave workers, wether there are sanctions against Burma or not would not make one bit of difference to the inhumanity given by Thitsaphout Than Shwe to his people, like he has been doing for years he has been spending billions of dollars on his military, as the reascent acquisition of these Mig 29s and he ignores the needs of his people completely. Let’s say that sanctions would be lifted completely the crimes against humanity would only flourish under this illegal regime. Then the situation in Burma would be worse than it is now. I personally wish these workers well, but under Than Shwe evil gaze I don’t think there will be any success, only imprisonment and murder. Then he will replace the strikes with people who are starving and will work for even less than 70 cent a day. People of Burma unite and take no longer this Than Shwe.
No sanction on Vietman, Thailand, Malaysia, Phillipine, Singapore, Laos, so on.
Sanction on Burma. Why?
They are really bad or Burmese leaders are really bad.
One of them is bad not both are bad.
wot bout suu kyi? she is goddess. why she no say anything?
GOOD COMMENT, HTUN. YOU TELL THE REALITY OF OUR PEOPLE. I SUPPORT YOU .
The lack of competition for labor is what keeps wages low. Sanctions keep people unemployed so Aunty has to sell single cigarettes at the side of the road.
There is an excellent analytical article by Elliott Prasse-Freeman in connection with sanctions somewhere in these columns suggesting a way to part with the crrent stale debates about the sanctions, and to start a fresh course of ideas and actions to bring about a positive change in Burma. I would like to quote an extract from the article:
“Thus I conclude with this tentative suggestion: maybe we should forget sanctions altogether. Not necessarily revoke them – leave them as they are (the bad cop to the opposition’s good), but make a move at a right-angle to the current debate by insisting that the very talking about them gets in the way of the real politics. This is not to turn our backs on Burma, to leave them to the whims of an abusive regime; emphatically not. It is rather to think of new ways of doing that politics: thinking through what strategies, technologies, apparatuses, will facilitate the re-entrance of the average Burmese person into politics.”
It gets tiring to read these endlessly repeated circular arguments on the topic wherever the opportunity pops up.
I think Mr. Prasse-Freeman hits the nail on the head.
It would be the best to pressure regime for a fair economic policy for all business minded people in Burma rather than blaming on the “sanctions”.
I see only people who want to cuddle with the Burmese generals for favoritism for something or want a part-time job in Burma want the “sanctions” remove on corrupt regime government.
I am from Myitkyina and sanctions does not effect my family. We only need the best fair economic policy for everyone regardless of facing the sanctions. Why only close family members of generals have greater leverage on import/export or other business permit?
What labels are on these shoes?
It will be a noteworthy description of commentator Day about Derek Tonkin as junta paid mouthpiece.
The ex ambassador Tonkin may know it is illogical to originate sanctions as a requisite result of the workers’ strike.
What else is more disgraceful to him in case six figure US dollars offered by junta will be the desirable reward to practice his political talent in falsehood?
Even Tonkin fails to keep up his high diplomatic dignity.
I wish the people of Burma well.
I don’t know sanction is bad for people because before the sanction back in 80′s we did not have enough medicine in our hospital, no text books for the students in schools, no food in our kitchen and it was going on and until today. We treated the patients with what we got in hands, our kids learned with by heart memorizing notes, we ate whatever we had. We just need basic human rights, food, education and health. we don’t need tanks, guns and weapons.
Labor unions in Canada (Ontario) have had difficulty going on strike due to CIA workplace policies. These same policies lead to large sums of money being taken out of the health care sector. A green sector boom might be halted and an “ice age” might set in as water sanctions begin in Toronto homes due to shortages forecasted by the UN.
Unfortunately, the argument about sanctions overlooks the real nature of the garment industry in the global economy. I strongly suggest to those who claim that sanctions are the cause of low wages for garment and textile workers in Rangoon look at the situation in Bangladesh last year where tens of thousands of workers struggled for a living wage. Sanctions have nothing to do with whether a government will protect its own people by enacting basic labour laws to protect their workers.
I feel like we were in the middle of battle field between General Than Shwe and NLD who support the economic sanction.
To those anti-sanctions guys,
The root of the problems is the regime, which has been prostituting the country, the people and all the natural resourses with no regard whatsoever.
While it may seem that sanctions do not affect the regime, what are your solutions to those generations-old problems?
Dyou think people will really benefit if sanctions are lifted?
I have serious reservations!
What can here in the UK do to help the people? A serious question requiring only sensible and forward thinking reply.
Why did USA and the west support of these murderus regime like GADAFI? All BECAUSE OF OIL. WITH BURMA situation they don’t care, Burma has nothing. look at VIETNAM, as example. so stop this sanctions. So our poor Burmese people can reach out to outside world.
Why did USA and the west support of these murderus regime like GADAFI? All BECAUSE OF OIL. WITH BURMA situation they don’t care, Burma has nothing. look at VIETNAM, as example. so stop this sanctions. So our poor Burmese people can reach out to outside world.THE WEST MEDIA WILL SHOW,BURMESE PEOPLE SEARCHING FOR FOOD IN THAI,MAE SOAT RUBBISH TIP. THEY WILL CARE BECAUSE OF BURMESE MINORITY PEOPLE ARE CHRISTIAN. DO THE WEST CARE FOR THOSE PEOPLE IN MEDDLE EAST? I DON’T THINK SO.
I would like to recommend that anybody who comments about sanctions should read the sanction regulations first; they a freely available on the internet.
Neither Europe, Australia etc. prohibits the import of shoes and textiles; only the US prohibit the import of Burmese goods. German, Austrian, and other European companies legally produce shoes and textiles here in Yangon.
Although I don’t want to defend the blanket sanctions but the low salaries are the result of pure straightforward exploitation of the poverty in Burma. This is done by European but mostly by Asian companies.
You can buy branded shoes and shirts in Yangon for $3 to $10 dollars a pair/piece. The same brands one can buy in Bangkok’s department stores (Emporium, Central, etc.) for $20 to $30 a pair/piece. The real question is who is making the profit: the manufacturer, the exporter, the customs’ authorities or the selling shop? It is certainly not the workers whose demands are without doubt fully justified.
Keep sanctions, we will get more poverty.
All the sanctions supporters, You said the main reason of poverty in Burma is ‘mismanagement of regime’.
I don’t believe that mismanagement is the only reason. Before sanctions were imposed, many young people in our quarter had a job at the foreign garment factory near our quarter. The workers were happy and had a dream to support their family by paying for the health care of their parents,the education of their younger brothers and sisters, saving money for thier own future marriage and so and so. When these hellish sanctions were imposed, these companies left. All these dreams of the young people fall flat. It was a immediate impact of the sanctions! can we deny that? Probably sanctions may not affect some families who have their own family bussiness such as video showing bussiness (mainly in countryside), opening the grocery stores (the business that are nothing to do with government). But for the family who has no enough money to invest to run their own business , life is terrible. Because their survival is directly related to the number of local and foregin companies. The less companies, the more difficult to find job. Because of the sanctions, if the business is not profitable enough, the very sure consequences are reducing the existing number of employees or paying lower salary.
Now I have talked enough about the sanctions. According to Dewar, ‘the root of the problem is the regime’. So how can we get rid of them? With sancitons? No, no. We have tried that for 20 years. The outcome shows ineffective because of the sorrounding countries like Chinese, India, Thailand and other ASEAN countries. Do you think International community can put pressure on China? Forget it. To do that you need to be crazy enough because China is the second economically strongest country in the world and member of Security Council. On top of that, China abuses the human rights continously but noone dare to impose sanctions!!!?!
Look at the political crisis in Libya! Gadafi has been abusing not only the human right, but also killing the civilians in a great number by bombarding. The protesters have beening asking for help from International Community (IC) since many days ago. But UN and IC do nothing, nothing, nothing. They talk too much, but they do nothing. I think they are waiting until all the civilians die in this crisis.
So whether we use sanctions or not, the regime will be there. But if there is sanctions, people have more difficulities in surviving. So we should stop sanctions, and we should not rely on the international community as well. We must find the more productive strategy to solve our internal crisis by ourselves. But not manifestation! We are sick of prison and death! We must be free and alive to solve all these problems. So No sanctions! No help from International community! But we (the whole population, all the tribes and all legal and illegal the politcal parties and the government)!
The protests started to develop here and there. According to DVB, more than 1,500 workers at a factory in Rangoon have braved the heavy-handed reputation of Burmese authorities to go on strike, demanding an increase to their meagre salary. This is the right way to begin with. The campaigns must begin from the bottom to up. The victories of these movements will encourage to the other oppressed to rise up with inspiration. And, that’s how we do non-violence. If these movements systematically develop, the mass uprising will erupt sooner than you thought.
Those folks who are pessimistic about the current stand of Daw Suu and NLD need to tone down their rhetoric a bit. Cause, that doesn’t carry much weight either way. Burma has brilliant local politicians, who know how to create a movement without them, by experience in 1988. None of those huge uprising has required a leader to call a shot. But, at a certain point, we might as use the power of the credible leadership to carry on our movement. Daw Suu and her party have been doing what they supposed to since the release of Daw Suu and they are just fine. The role of elites and international recognition among them are the key part for them to play when we reach the boiling point. Your patience and confidence them are required to build the morale of the original people of Burma, who are already confused. Remember, Daw Suu can’t call for a general strike because that is not her job.
Let’s not lost hope and discourage ourselves. We must play our part effectively without a doubt. The people need our moral support and clear signal.
I am sure that sanction is more affect on ordinary citizen.we could determine seeing the increasing number of labors and refugees in neighbor country.What about try to lift sanction for a while and see what might change? we would get benefit somehow if whoever from our people could take advantage from lifting of sanction.please support to lift a sanction.
I think if we really want to have a dialogue with the regime, we should persuade them by using wise way. My point is : we should not challenge them, we should not threaten them. They have committed so many crimes, so they are really afraid to face the consequences. The only thing that can keep them alive is power. So they are very sensitive to all kinds of menace. As long as the threat to their lives is there, they will spend a great amount of money on army to keep their power. I know ‘noone is above law’, but we should think about the political prisoners and their families and the refugees outside burma who want to go back to Burma to join thier families.
For the good of everyone inside and outside burma, we should gently convince the government that this is a time to change and improve the living standard of all burmese people and develope Burma to be able to catch up with other ASEAN countries. By doing so, everyone will be free from this long-lasting crisis. We don’t need to purnish this government by ourselves because their karma will purnish them. I think all the buddhists will understand this phylosophy. Life is very short; we have many important and meaningfull things to do. We should not waste our precious time with anger and other unhealthy problems.
This is what I think. Maybe I am wrong! maybe I am right! I think being able to express feeling is democracy.
Nobody is in the middle in Burma. Either you support the NLD or you support the generals.
I don’t support none of them. I think about the hardship of the burmese population because the battle between them. If you like sanctions, keep them until Burma becomes the poorest country in Asia. People are aging. Old generation will die with poverty and your new generation will inherit that. Very good! Continue! Burma will never be out of hell!
Every one think they are the best and seem too many leader for Burmese.That why Burma have a longest civil war. Mostly Burmese never try to cooperate and criticizes the leadership.Good people deserve a good government.Burma need no more leader but a good follower.