Solidarity with Burmese Strikers

The Congress of South African Trade Unions declares its solidarity with the 2,000 workers from three factories in Burma who have gone on strike to demand better wages.

The three factories are OPAL 2, Kyarlay and Taiyi, in the Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zone of the Burmese capital, Rangoon. A large contingent of police personnel is reported to have arrived. A woman school teacher from Hlaing Tharyar told reporters that “the streets in the area have been cordoned off and we saw about 30 police vehicles on the roads”.

The striking workers are demanding an extra Kyat 10,000 (R70) in wages and reduction of working hours from the current 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. They have also demanded that their workplace and dining hall be made more hygienic with better sanitation.

About 1,400 workers from the South Korea owned `Mya Fashion` garment factory in the Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zone No. 3, have also staged a strike and about 100 workers from a prawn cold storage in Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zone No. 2 and women workers from Weng Hong Hung garment factory in Hlaing Tharyar Industrial Zone No. 3 went on strike in January.

There are 50,000 to 70,000 workers in Hlaing Tharyar, the biggest industrial zone in Burma, with over 800 cold storages, garment factories, foodstuff units, a value-added wood industry, chemical and general merchandise factories.

In the context of the Burmese military junta’s brutal repression of any form of protest, these strikes are a magnificent and brave demonstration of resistance.

The junta forcibly overthrew a democratically elected government after the country’s democratic elections in May 1990. Ever since it has inflicted untold misery on the people of Burma: forced slave labour, child labour, arrested political activists, conducted extra-judicial killings banned all political and labour organisations.

In November 2000, the International Labour Organisation took the unprecedented step of calling on all governments to take sanctions against Burma. It charged the Burmese military regime with a ‘crime against humanity’ for its systematic use of forced labour.

Up to two million men, women, children and the elderly are forced to work for the Burmese military. They construct roads, railways, dams and army camps. They act as servants and sentries for army officers. Or they dig fishponds, log timber and farm on land that officers have seized. Porters are saddled with heavy loads and forced-marched through the hills, often in front to detonate mines.

Burma has ratified ILO Conventions on freedom of association and freedom from forced labour, but ignores them. The Federation of Trade Unions of Burma (FTUB) is banned and two of its leaders, U Khin Kyaw and U Myo Aung Thant, have been jailed for 17 years and life respectively for their union activities. The FTUB operates in exile from Thailand.

Global Unions, now part of the International Trade Union Confederation, released a database of over 325 foreign companies with business links to Burma. Some prominent companies have withdrawn under international union pressure, such as the French multinational hotel chain Accor.

COSATU calls upon the workers and democrats around the world to express their support for these brave striking workers and to demand that all governments refuse to have any relations with this anti-worker dictatorship.

Patrick Craven (National Spokesperson)
Congress of South African Trade Unions
1-5 Leyds Cnr Biccard Streets
Braamfontein, 2017

P.O. Box 1019
Johannesburg, 2000
SOUTH AFRICA

Tel: +27 11 339-4911/24
Fax: +27 11 339-5080/6940/ 086 603 9667
Cell: 0828217456
E-Mail: [email protected]

This post is in: Press Release