Exploitation in global supply chains: Burmese workers in Mae Sot

Free trade agreements and Southeast Asia

“…This possibility will be especially attractive for factories that are currently unionised. This potential is already seen in areas such as Mae Sot, where there are over 100,000 Burmese migrant workers, and where no unions have been established (see Arnold and Hewison, 2005).…”

“…In Thailand, this pressure in the textile and garment sector~ especially since the Asian financial crisis, has seen a steady increase of informal, subcontract, and contract workers (on sub-contracting, see Maniemai, 2003), in addition to a vast increase in the use of migrant workers who are paid roughly one-third to one-half of the minimum wage and enjoy virtually no labor rights, which they are meant to have under Thailand's labor laws (see Arnold and Hewison, 2005). Given the example of the exceptionally weak labour provisions under the USSFTA, there is reason to think that such provisions will be a part of the Thailand-US FTA.…”

Can Garment Exports from Cambodia, Laos and Burma be Sustained?

“…Interviews show that Lao and Burmese workers prefer to seek employment in Thailand because of higher wages that they can earn for the same amount of work (interviews, Vientiane, 5 December 2006). Yet, as Arnold and Hewison (2005) and Arnold (2006: 212) reported, unorganised Burmese employees working in garment firms located in Thailand earned only a third to a half of the earnings of Thai employees.…”

Hong Kong-Invested Companies in Thailand: Labour Relations and Practices

“…98 on the right to organise and collective bargain (ITUC, 2007: 3). At the same time, the existing labour law means that union coverage is poor and large sections of the working populationespecially migrant workers -have virtually no coverage (see Arnold and Hewison, 2005). The Thai Labour Ministry has been managed as an under-resourced and inefficient agency that is unable and unwilling to effectively monitor the existing provisions of the labour law.…”