Only about 600,000 employees out of 37 million people employed in Thailand, or about 1.6 per cent of Thai employees, are union members, a survey shows.
According to statistics released by the Labour Relations Bureau, Ministry of Labour, as of January 2015, 432,356 out of 616,169 private sector employees are members of labour unions, which amounts to 70 per cent. Meanwhile, in state enterprises, only about 30 per cent (183,813 of the total of 616,169 employees) are union members.
Moreover, Thailand has 1,453 labour unions in the private sector and 47 unions in the state enterprises.
42 of 77 provinces have no labour union. Unions are concentrated in Bangkok and its adjacent provinces, and in industrial areas in the central and the eastern regions.
The ten provinces with the highest numbers of labour unions are:
1. Bangkok - 410 unions
2. Samut Prakan - 379 unions
3. Chonburi - 194 unions
4. Rayong - 128 unions
5. Pathum Thani - 90 unions
6. Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya - 61 unions
7. Chachoengsao - 34 unions
8. Samut Sakhon - 33 unions
9. Saraburi - 30 unions
10. Phuket - 19 unions
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