THAILAND
(Report on the International Meeting for Industrial Accident Victims' Groups)
Background
Women Workers
Economic development in Thailand was initiated by the International Monetary Fund in the 1960s. Most workers worked in the agricultural sector, but now the industrial sector takes up most of the workforce. The Board of Overseas Investment (BOI) has been set up by the government to attract foreign investors and to create EPZs. The BOI encourage development based on the cheap labor of women. They keep unions out of EPZs.
Main industries in ThaiIand are textile, shoe, toy and electronics, and the main investors are from Japan, Taiwan, Europe, US, HK, with some Chinese and some Chinese Thai. 90 percent of workers in all these industries are women. The work is routine and requires a lot of patience. The rationale used by the government and the employers is that women are best at this type of work. Many factories put stimulants in drinking water to increase the productivity of women workers. Most factories have two shifts and forced overtime work is very common. With many factories built over 40 years ago, the working environment is far from safe and healthy.
Most women workers are facing health and safety problems, especially in the textile industry where eye and lung problems like silicosis are very common among them.
Textile Industry
Workers in the textile industry are usually between fourteen and forty years old. In Thailand very few doctors specialize in occupational health and safety. Hence, when patients visit regular doctors, misdiagnose is very common. The sick workers are dismissed without any benefits and employers typically refute workers' claims for compensation to shirk form their responsibility. Cases are then taken to courts where employers usually win because in Thailand, business people have the support from army and government. Sometimes cases last years and this fact is very discouraging for the workers.
This frustration has driven workers to come together to fight by themselves, rather than relying on jurisdiction. Victims groups are formed in result. In the EPZs, workers have set up health centers, as well as started campaigns on health and safety of workers.
Electronic Industry
The investment in electronics have been growing. About 3,000-4,000 workers in Thailand are employed by the US-owned Seagate company. Some workers from this company are reported to be suffering from health and safety problems. One worker spoke out and then disappeared. Yet ironically, the Thai government gave the company (Seagate) an award for having the best environment in the factory. The real reason behind is just that Seagate brings in a lot of money to the country.
Another example is a Japanese-owned company in Lamphun, situated in northern Thailand. Thirteen women workers in this company died of lead poisoning last year. Some NGOs conducted researches on the causes of death and found out that some workers had gone to hospital in Chiang Mai and were told that they had aluminum in their bodies, but the Government sent in pathologists who said the workers died of AIDs.
Efforts of Victims' Group
NGOs have encouraged independent doctors to go into the EPZs in regional industrial estates to investigate but the BOI have not let them in. Workers' groups and trade unions have started a campaign:
- a. demand government and capitalists to improve health and safety conditions in factories
- b. demand government to provide specialists on occupational health and diseases
- c. demand establishments, of health and safety centers in EPZs
- d. encourage workers' participation in teams that investigate health and safety in the factories
- e. demand government to have a health and safety charter
- f. demand BOI to stop giving advantages to companies who do not follow national laws on health and safety
Apart from the above, the Thai workers' groups have been networking with international victims' groups in Hong Kong, India and Japan. The groups have also participated in the Bhopal campaign. The day of the Kader toy factory fire, May 10th, has been requested by workers to be Occupational Health and Safety Day. On the second anniversary of the Kader factory fire, the groups also provided assistance to the Hong Kong victims groups which went to Thailand to express solidarity.
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