Clandestine trade unionism bears its first fruits

(October 2009)

Article published in Union View n°15, also available at http://www.ituc-csi.org/IMG/pdf/VS_Burma_EN.pdf

The repression of trade union rights plunges Burmese workers deeper into poverty. Oblivious to their rights, they find themselves at the mercy of employers that are only too happy to exploit a totally subservient workforce. Members of the FTUB (1) are developing a clandestine network inside the country.

"I have worked on looms since I was a child, but I became slower with age and my employer told me I would have to take care of the spinning from now on. It’s a job that has to be done sitting on the floor", explains Khin (2), a 70-year-old woman employed at a weaving mill in the Inle lake region in Shan State. "As I’m all alone in life, I had no alternative but to accept. I only earn 300 kyats (USD 0.27) a day. I work from Monday to Sunday from 9 to 5, with two days off a month for religious reasons. It’s not easy because I suffer from high blood pressure, and then working on the floor makes my knees hurt. Having said that, my boss is considerate, he pays for the medical care I need from time to time."

This employee’s personal account speaks volumes about what Burmese workers have to endure. They are among the lowest paid people in the world, they work seven days a week and have no paid leave. The weaving mill, located in a tourist area, sells its fabrics at prices in excess of 30 or 40 dollars, whilst the labour only costs one or two dollars and the materials not much more (loom workers are paid 500 kyats, around 0.45 cents, a day).

The exploitation of Burmese workers is just as bad in the industrial zones that have sprung up on the outskirts of major cities, in some instances on land confiscated from farmers without proper compensation. There too, in the absence of trade unions and labour inspections, the application of international labour standards and the national labour legislation is left to the employers’ goodwill. In the Shwe Pyi Tha industrial zone, for example, an hour’s drive from Rangoon, some factories fire workers if they are ill for more than three days whilst others give sick leave and even regular days off. Overtime pay also depends on the employers’ goodwill, although the legislation states that workers doing overtime should receive double time.

                             "We don’t know if we have any rights"

"I work from seven in the morning till eight at night four days a week, and from seven to six two days a week, for 35 dollars a month", explains an employee in charge of quality control at Jewoo Manufacturing, a garment factory not far from Rangoon. "When there are a lot of orders we sometimes have to work until nine at night, but I don’t know if this overtime is included in my wages. If a worker is sick, she can stay home for three days at the most before being dismissed, and three dollars a day are deducted from her pay. We are not aware if there are any labour laws, if we have any rights to defend, but, in any case, there is no chance of any dialogue with the management, and there are no other jobs to go to."

The total repression of all trade union rights, freedom of association and freedom of expression makes the workers passive in the face of the exploitation they suffer. "Every employee knows he or she has a strong chance of being dismissed if they so much as utter a word of protest or express a negative view of the situation," says Maw (3), an FTUB member from the Rangoon region. "And with the poverty wages paid in Burma, next to no one is able to save money to guard against a knock like this. So the top priority is hanging on to our job, as badly paid as it might be, as it allows us to feed ourselves, and sometimes our family. It is absurd that in a country as rich in natural resources as Burma, in a country that generates so much revenue by exporting these resources, the workers are so worried about not having anything to eat the next day. But that’s the reality we live in, and that’s why people are so afraid of rebelling."

                              A clandestine network to train workers

It is amid this climate that the FTUB has been forced to operate since its foundation in 1991. Having been banned by the military junta, which considers it a "threat to Burma" and classes it as a terrorist organisation, the FTUB has to work underground. It has structures both inside and outside the country, including eight federations in the main sectors of the Burmese economy. One of its main activities is to inform workers about their fundamental rights, about international labour standards and the mechanism for filing a complaint to ILO-Yangon in the event of forced labour or the recruitment of children as soldiers (see other article in the same publication, page 6). Where needed, trade unionists help the victims to write up this kind of complaint and make sure it reaches colleagues in the international trade union movement and the ILO.

"The training sessions are held informally, in private places, in small groups of between five and 15 to 20 people, so as not to attract the authorities’ attention," explains an FTUB member active in the agricultural sector. "We have already given training to 1500 people in our sector between 2006 and 2009." To limit the risks in the event of one of them being arrested, the members from the FTUB’s various federations do not inform each other about their activities. In total, tens of thousands of Burmese workers have been able to learn about their rights thanks to this type of training.

In addition to these informal meetings, the Burmese trade union uses the radio to raise awareness among as wide a public as possible. Three FM radio stations broadcast from secret locations in Mon, Karen and Kayah States. One manages to broadcast as far as Rangoon. The radio stations’equipment is rudimentary and portable so that it can quickly be hidden if the junta’s troops are approaching. The FTUB also uses solidarity action as a means of staying in contact with people. This was the case following Cyclone Nargis, when trade unionists were able to channel 150,000 dollars in international aid to those in need.

                                     Some encouraging results

The union also supports five schools in different regions. "Our donations to schools allow us to get closer to teachers and parents, to raise awareness about work-related issues," explains Maw. "They, for their part, tell us about their dayto-day lives, and we are sometimes able to help them. If, for example, small farmers have their land, their produce or their livestock seized by the authorities, be it the army, the police, etc., we write a letter to the representatives of the SPDC (4) to inform them and try to obtain compensation or have the confiscated items returned. We do not, of course, act as the FTUB, given that the junta considers our union to be a ‘terrorist’ organisation, but we can write as individuals, as an advisor, a lawyer, or the friend of the person concerned. We have already seen the SPDC respond positively in cases like these."

Some of the FTUB’s members have received training in Thailand, during small seminars. Eai Shwe Sinn Nyunt, head (acting) of the FTUB Women’s Committee, organises some of these training sessions in the border town of Mae Sot in Thailand: "When the members return to Burma, they tell their colleagues about what they have learnt about their rights, international conventions, etc. This often creates a greater awareness about the magnitude of the exploitation they suffer and sometimes leads to collective demands." In 2008, around 60 strikes were staged, often by workers whose awareness had been raised by the clandestine trade union network. Many of them resulted in wage increases.

In spite of the repression (see article on page 4 of the same publication), the authorities occasionally accept that the workers’ demands are not totally unfounded. "Since the ILO’s last International Labour Conference in June 2009, several cases of labour law violations raised by our members in the factories have been resolved following the intervention of the Labour Ministry," explains Eai Shwe Sinn Nyunt. "Such was the case, for example, at the garment factory in Bago, where ten women were able to recover the three months’ salary they were entitled to following their dismissal. If it had not been for one of their colleagues who had been informed about this aspect of the Burmese legislation in Thailand, they would never have known that they were entitled to this money. This type of example is encouraging; it shows that workers are becoming aware of their rights and dare to demand respect for them despite the climate of fear. There is sometimes a way of defending oneself, even under such a regime."

(1) Federation of Trade Unions – Burma, an ITUC associated organisation, www.ftub.org

(2) Assumed name

(3) Assumed name

(4) State Peace and Development Council, the name adopted by the Burmese military regime.

Box :

"I am forty-five years old and have four children, including a disabled daughter. I reach the rickshaw stand at seven in the morning, I hire a rickshaw for half a dollar a day and I peddle until eight in the evening. I earn three dollars a day on average, but my income is falling because there are fewer and fewer Burmese people able to afford non-public transport, and tourists are becoming increasingly rare."

(Thin, a rickshaw driver in Mandalay)