Factory workers on strike for a wage increase yesterday threatened to unite with other protest movements in Yangon if the government does not explain why plainclothes “thugs” attacked the mostly female picketers last week.
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| Garment worker Ma Aye Aye Phyo reads a statement to the media at Mahabandoola Park in downtown Yangon yesterday evening. Photo: Zarni Phyo |
The workers have warned that unless the government explains its role
in breaking up the demonstrations and releases arrested workers and
activists, they will join forces with student protesters, land grab
demonstrators and monks.
On March 4, vigilantes decked in red
armbands emblazoned with the word “duty” helped riot police break up a
labour protest in Yangon’s Shwe Pyi Thar Industrial Zone. They had
planned to march on downtown Yangon but instead 14 workers and an
activist were arrested in the crackdown, workers said at a press
conference yesterday evening at Mahabandoola Park.
“Most of us
are women, so we might be arrested easily, but the government made the
arrests violently, beating us. It shows the aggressive desire of the
government,” the workers said in a statement read out at yesterday’s
conference.
The newly detained factory picketers joined two
labour union leaders and an activist who were arrested mid-February
during violent clashes with police. Blamed for allegedly instigating the
protests, the union leaders and activists are facing charges under
section 505(b) of the Penal Code which permits imprisonment for
committing an offence that can disrupt the state or public tranquility.
The arrested workers are being charged with rioting under section 147.
Just
under 4000 garment and shoe factory workers employed by five different
Chinese and South Korean companies launched the strike in January. While
demands varied between factories, all called for a K60,000-a-month
(US$60) minimum wage, which the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers’
Association called unaffordable.
Many of the workers were lured
back to work by a K300-a-day pay boost, in part because they could no
longer afford to go strike, having already lost more than a month’s
wages.
Several hundred labourers from Costec and Ford Glory
garment factories refused to return to the assembly lines yesterday, but
they shied away from any demonstrations after the latest round of
violence.
Regional
minister U Zaw Aye Maung, who has led efforts to negotiate with the
workers, declined to comment about the recent arrests. He was dismissive
of those workers who remain on strike.
“We cannot solve the issue for everyone,” he said. “Perhaps some continue to disagree, but most of them have accepted our
negotiations.”
U Zaw Aye Maung said that he did not have any information about the armband-toting thugs involved in last week’s clashes.
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