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With its elaborate temples, exotic foods and friendly people, it is no wonder that thousands
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spend their holidays in Thailand every year.
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But the fact that Thailand also provides assembly-line work for the world's electronics and textiles
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industries, is less known. Mobiles, laptops and mp3 players are all cheap
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in Asia. The hard drives in all of these devices are largely manufactured in Thailand.
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The country is the largest hard drive exporter in the world. Every third disk that is installed
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comes from here. Half a million Thai people are working in the electronics sector.
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No other industry is growing as quickly.
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Christina Schroeder and Andrea Ben Lassoued from the Austrian Sirocco Agency are visiting
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an industrial park north of Bangkok. They have travelled to Thailand to investigate
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the working conditions in the electronics industry.
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These workers are employed by a Taiwanese supplier for Sony, HP and Dell. Before the
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night shift starts they buy snacks from the small food stalls outside the factory gates.
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Filming inside the factory is not allowed. Twelve hour shifts are standard fare here,
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and all the women work overtime. More than 10 hours every night is spent working on the machines.
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They report pain in their legs and back. Their salary is less than 100 euros a month.
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Most of the workers are women, young, unmarried women. Working 8 hours a day is not
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enough - they must also work overtime, 5,6,7 days a week.
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The company that ran this factory was Anyon. They manufactured parts for Samsung products,
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until they suddenly closed up. To encourage investment, new companies in
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Thailand are exempt from taxes for several years. When this exemption period has expired,
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factories close, and then re-open under a new name.
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But this time the workers did not play along, and instead occupied the factory. They are
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demanding their unpaid wages and are preventing the management from starting again with new, cheaper labour.
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The factory did not like the union. This year, they wanted to reopen the factory, Because he paid money for me, we are going outside.
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A typical market in the province -- everywhere you look there is an abundance of fresh produce. But
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the people have to work hard to make ends meet.
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Such is the case for Manus Tebto, who comes to this market to find his dinner. Previously
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his wife cooked for him, but after he had an accident at work, she left him.
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Manus worked at the company Corrupad, a supplier of Samsung. The machine he used had a defect. Although
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he had reported this several times, it was never repaired. In March 2008, at the end
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of a 10-hour night shift, he caught his foot in the machine. Half his foot had to be removed.
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For Manus, the cost of ever-cheaper computers has been high.
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The management promised to support him financially. But so far he has seen no money.
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Beneath the offices of German underwear manufacturer 'Triumph', the workers have built a camp. They
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are protesting against the sacking of nearly 2000 people.
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Despite an annual turnover of over 2 billion Swiss francs, Triumph justify these dismissals
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by citing the economic crisis.
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I've worked here 16 years as a seamstress, and often forget that I am now unemployed. I
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am 43 years old. It is very difficult to find a new job. But if I go back to my village
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it is worse, because there you can do nothing. There you cannot make money.
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Protesters are making their presence felt here too, outside the department of labour protection in Bangkok.
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Despite the economic collapse, another Triumph
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factory in Nakon Sawan has been expanded. But the trade unions argue that it is running
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on even cheaper labour and there is no worker representation.
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Previously, Triumph were considered a good employer in Thailand. Pay was above average and the staff were allowed to organize themselves.
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But then, says Triumph, came the economic crisis.
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Whether Triumph is deliberately ridding itself of unionized workers, is difficult to prove.
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The bottom line for these debt-ridden workers is that cheap goods still have a price, and
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it is they who are left bearing the burden.
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All of us are living in the debt circle. Many of us have external debt.
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The interest rate that they are paying is 20 percent per month. The legal limit for yearly interest rates is 15 percent.
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Triumph has paid these workers a severance pay, but they want to be reinstated into their
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old jobs, and so the strike continues.
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Ramplue Pooyen, who lost her job at Triumph, is still living in a poor neighbourhood near
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the factory. She has begun packing her things. Her hope lies with the unionists, who have
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travelled to Europe to negotiate with the management of the German underwear manufacturer.
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If they fail to reverse the dismissals, then like many others, Ramplue will be forced to
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return to her village, to a life with no income, and even more debts.
