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Unscrupulous manufacturing unit house owners have used the coup to chop wages and harass office unions, however profitable strikes at two crops late final yr have highlighted the dedication of employees to withstand exploitation and abuse.
By KO MAUNG and STEPHEN CAMPBELL | FRONTIER
When the Myanmar army seized energy on February 1, 2021, manufacturing unit employees within the industrial zones round Yangon had been instantly apprehensive.
“It’ll be prefer it was earlier than,” mentioned Ma Phyu*, a employee interviewed by the authors two days after the coup, referring to the many years below army rule earlier than 2011 when labour unions had been de facto unlawful. “Employers will oppress employees and scale back their wages,” she mentioned.
Concern about the potential of deteriorating working circumstances and restrictions on workers organising at their workplaces had been main explanation why hundreds of largely younger, largely feminine manufacturing unit employees protested towards the coup in downtown Yangon on February 6, catalysing a collection of common strikes which have taken place because the coup.
Alongside the protests, civil servants, led by medical doctors, nurses and different healthcare employees, had launched a Civil Disobedience Motion that will subsequently entice a whole bunch of hundreds of different private and non-private sector employees.
At Yangon’s ports, putting truck drivers introduced worldwide commerce to a standstill and the banking system was paralysed by walk-outs. Employees making army tools at Ministry of Defence factories and miners employed at Chinese language-run copper mines with revenue-sharing agreements with the army additionally joined the overall strike.
By organising themselves and taking direct motion, employees all through Myanmar made historical past within the weeks and months after the coup. As a scholar activist concerned within the protests acknowledged in June 2021, “Working-class individuals have been essential to our motion.”
The experiences of employees in industrial zones round Yangon because the coup clarify the causal hyperlink between army rule and the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Myanmar and present how the collective struggles of employees to enhance their livelihoods is a vital component of the broader well-liked rebellion.
On the identical time, the employment-related calls for made by employees in industrial zones round Yangon since February 1 final yr – for higher wages and dealing circumstances and elevated alternatives to organise – reveal a continuity between working-class struggles because the coup and people throughout the so-called democratic transition.
The enduring collective struggles of employees in industrial zones round Yangon – and people of atypical individuals all through the nation – replicate the necessity for one thing past mere restoration of the pre-coup political association.
What is obvious in these office actions is a strategy of democratisation from beneath, as employees endeavour to claim collective energy of their office.
Repressing employees, enabling exploitation
The junta’s response to defiant manufacturing unit employees has been brutal. On February 26, 2021, the junta declared 16 of the nation’s most distinguished commerce unions and labour organisations unlawful and threatened to arrest labour activists who continued to organise anti-coup actions, signalling an acute consciousness of the ability of labour organising.
On March 14, troopers and police killed a minimum of 65 protesters in Yangon’s closely industrialised Hlaing Tharyar Township, the place tens of hundreds of manufacturing unit employees stay. Later that day, martial regulation was declared in Hlaing Tharyar and close by Shwepyithar Township. On March 15, martial regulation was additionally declared within the Yangon townships of North Dagon, South Dagon, Dagon Seikkan and North Okkalapa, all of which suggests the junta was focusing on working class neighbourhoods.
On April 15, about 40 troopers raided the Shwepyithar workplace of the Solidarity Commerce Union of Myanmar and arrested its director, Daw Myo Myo Aye, for organising anti-coup actions. Different union leaders and labour activists have since gone underground or fled overseas.
Within the weeks after the coup, employees’ strikes, provide chain disruptions and a local weather of insecurity compelled factories in Yangon’s industrial zones to droop operations. Following the mass killings of protesters at Hlaing Tharyar on March 14 and the following imposition of martial regulation, many employees fled the economic zones for his or her hometowns in rural Myanmar. By July, an estimated 250,000 jobs had been misplaced in garment factories alone, mentioned the Worldwide Labour Group.
Since then, most factories round Yangon have reopened and employees who fled post-coup violence and financial disruption have returned, regardless of army and police harassment. Though many employees wished to assist the CDM, they’ve been compelled to return to work due to restricted livelihood choices and lack of social assist because of junta restrictions.
As employees returned to manufacturing unit jobs, many employers took benefit of martial regulation and financial disruption to chop their wages, degrade working circumstances and undermine office labour teams.
Ko Aung*, a manufacturing unit employee interviewed in January, mentioned casualisation was more and more frequent. “They use politics as an excuse to undermine the employees’ organisation. Throughout this time of political instability, there aren’t many employees on month-to-month salaries. They rent day by day labourers. For those who’re dissatisfied, they fireplace you,” he mentioned. “There aren’t any written contracts for day by day labourers. For the day by day wage, they pay K3,600 (about US$2).”
Employers have additionally leveraged the junta safety equipment towards employees who attempt to collectively organise for wage will increase and improved working circumstances.
On March 16 final yr, police and troopers referred to as by the proprietor of the Xing Jia manufacturing unit in Hlaing Tharyar reportedly shot and killed six employees who had argued over their wages with their employer, whom they accused of theft.
“After the coup, the employees’ scenario deteriorated,” mentioned Ko Aung. “Employers took benefit of the political scenario to severely oppress the employees.”
Harassment and extortion
Within the industrial zones of townships below martial regulation, employees are additionally dealing with fixed harassment from patrolling troopers and police, who act with impunity and sometimes extort cash from workers travelling outdoors their workplaces.
“Once I’m travelling alongside the street, I don’t really feel safe,” mentioned Ma Khaing*, one other employee interviewed in January.
“They [police] test our telephones” for anti-coup content material, she mentioned. “Once I’m travelling alongside the street, I can by no means ensure whether or not I’ll be stopped and questioned. I fear about that.”
“We’ve been instructed that we will be imprisoned for 3 years if now we have [anti-coup] information on our telephone. Once I’m planning to exit, I at all times delete all the things from my telephone upfront. Solely then do I’m going out,” Ma Khaing added, “In the event that they discover [incriminating content] on our telephone, they accuse us of supporting the PDF [People’s Defence Forces] and demand cash. They demand as a lot as they need. An individual should give the cash as demanded. In the event that they don’t pay, [the police] say they’ll ship the employee to be interrogated.”
Cautious of getting their manufacturers tarnished by affiliation with violent army rule, some worldwide attire corporations have stopped sourcing clothes from Myanmar. Others, akin to H&M and Zara, initially suspended orders after the coup, however have since resumed putting orders with suppliers. As of October 2021, most of Myanmar’s 600 or so garment factories that produce for export are working, although with decreased workforces, based on the Myanmar Garment Producers’ Affiliation’s October publication.
The decreased demand for labour has left employees much more weak to exploitation. They typically have to just accept decrease wages and poorer working circumstances or face the specter of dismissal, whereas union organisers are notably liable to being sacked. Many individuals determined for work are paying brokers to rearrange jobs for them in neighbouring Thailand, the place hundreds have been arrested for coming into the nation illegally.
Employees’ struggles below army rule
For manufacturing unit employees and their households, the coup has exacerbated what had been already extraordinarily precarious circumstances within the industrial zones round Yangon.
In February 2020, in the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, disruptions to the provision of uncooked supplies from China led to garment manufacturing unit closures and the lack of between 10,000 and 15,000 jobs. By September 2020, 233 factories had requested permission from the authorities to shut, droop operations or lay off employees. Employers then used the pretext of COVID-19 disruption to sack unionised employees, whereas police intervened to interrupt up strikes and arrest organisers.
With no efficient social security internet even earlier than the coup, manufacturing unit employees sacked throughout the pandemic typically had little alternative however to tackle additional debt and scale back meals consumption, and in some instances turned to intercourse work to assist their households.
However working class communities within the industrial zones round Yangon had been already struggling earlier than the pandemic. Labour regulation violations and wages beneath the authorized minimal had been prevalent at factories in Yangon. Many different employees toiled in casual preparations outdoors the remit of labour safety legal guidelines.
Nonetheless, even whereas the last decade earlier than the coup was tough for employees, there was real progress being made and hope that optimistic adjustments would proceed.
Commerce unions had been banned for almost 50 years, however had been permitted once more below the Labour Organisation Legislation enacted in 2011 below the pro-military Union Solidarity and Improvement Get together authorities. The regulation resulted in a whole bunch of hundreds of manufacturing unit employees in Yangon and elsewhere organising themselves into unions; by 2021, nearly 3,000 office unions had been registered all through the nation.
Over the following decade, many of those unions went on strike for higher wages and dealing circumstances. A few of the most assertive factory-based unions had been affiliated with the Federation of Garment Employees of Myanmar and the All Burma Federation of Commerce Unions. These unions, and the broader working class networks of which they’re a component, have shaped a devoted constituency of resistance to army rule because the coup.
In addition to road protests, employees have additionally been organising because the coup to collectively push for higher wages and dealing circumstances. Such strikes can contain extraordinarily excessive threat, as proven by the killing of employees on the Xing Jia manufacturing unit in March 2021.
Nonetheless, there have been two notable instances because the coup of employees in Yangon’s industrial zones making tangible positive aspects by occurring strike.
On October 14 final yr, about 350 employees on the Gasan Attire manufacturing unit in Hlaing Tharyar went on strike over pay cuts and reductions in advantages. The strike continued into early November, when troopers and police raided the manufacturing unit and the strikers had been compelled to flee.
Employees say senior administration referred to as in junta forces to place down the strike. Administration additionally instructed the employees that the manufacturing unit would shut in December due to an absence of orders. Nonetheless, a employee interviewed in January for this text mentioned the menace to shutter the manufacturing unit – which stays open – was a ploy by the proprietor to sack unionised employees and keep away from paying them severance.
“The employees had the appropriate to obtain severance pay and demanded to obtain it however administration refused,” mentioned the employee, who requested to not be recognized. “Troopers got here, however the employees had solidarity and continued to demand severance pay and the employer ultimately agreed to pay. You may say that we had been victorious.”
Then on December 8, about 800 employees at a manufacturing unit in Shwepyithar Township, which they requested not be recognized, started a strike that lasted 11 days and likewise led to a victory for office solidarity.
The employees’ calls for had been for the employer to cease slicing the bonuses of workers who had been unable to work daily, serve higher high quality rice within the manufacturing unit canteen, and sack a human sources supervisor accused of fixed harassment. The employees achieved their calls for, together with the removing of the human sources supervisor. Additionally they held a office election to decide on a brand new government committee for his or her factory-level union.
These stoppages have demonstrated that manufacturing unit employees in industrial zones round Yangon have the motivation and capability to organise and strike for collective calls for, regardless of the restrictions and threat of violence they face below martial regulation. The strikes are due to this fact an vital precedent for additional office motion below post-coup circumstances.
* denotes using a pseudonym
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