Disbanding a Union: State Partiality 

Assoc Prof Worawit Charoenlert of the Faculty of Economics, Chiang Mai University, gave this interview after the Ministry of Labour revoked the registration of the Labour Union of Hoya Glass Disk (Thailand) based in the Northern Industrial Estate in Lamphun province. In his view, this action cannot be construed other than as state partiality and an attempt to destroy unionization. 

Could you give us some background about the Northern Industrial Estate in Lamphun province?

Industrial estates have been established to serve state economic development policy, which promotes the expansion of the industrial sector into rural areas. Previously, most industrialization took place in Bangkok and surrounding areas causing inequality between the urban and rural sectors. The industrial estate model has been adopted to decentralize industry into the rural sector, and that is how the Northern Industrial Estate in Lamphun province came about.

The state invests in developing infrastructure for the industrial estates in the hope that it can attract investment from the private sector.  At the beginning, most factories in industrial estates were agricultural processing operations, since the majority of local people were farmers. Later, with the decline of agricultural production, other investments have been drawn into the industrial estates, particularly the production of electronic parts. 

At present, almost 60% of investment in industrial estates concerns electronics, mostly owned by Japanese investors.  The industry is doing quite well there, probably thanks to the rather dry climate and higher education among local workers, most of whom have graduated with a college education. Despite the remote location, bulk transportation is easy since electronic parts are light.

Most electronics industries are labour intensive.  99% of the raw material has to be imported, and after assembly, the products are then again destined for export to make electronic equipment or computers. One unique characteristic of the electronics industry is that most of the labour is emale from the age of 18 to 25, with very few men, most of whom work as supervisor, or leaders, but low-ranking workers.

What are the major issues in the factories? 

Not just in Thailand, but in most industrial estates, unionization is very uncommon since the prime attraction of such facilities for investors is their cheap labour. Thus, unionization is viewed as an obstacle to investment. In the investors’ opinion, unionization will bring about a rise in production costs, wages, welfare, etc. Therefore, most industrial estates in Thailand are under special regulation (the Industrial Estate Act B.E. 2520 (1977)) which provides for a rather independent administration. 

Most problems that concern labour unions are two-fold - low wages and environmental and occupational health. First, most workers with a technical college education are poorly paid and it has been the norm to hire on the cheap in industrial estates. There has hardly been any rise in wages. Even though many workers have been working for a long time, the chance of an increase in their wages is slim. Meanwhile, most factories impose strict regulations and since workers have no representation and are not organized, most decision-making is carried out solely by the employers. 

Second is the environmental and occupational health. About ten years ago, 12 workers in electronics factories in Lamphun Industrial Estate suddenly died almost at the same time. The medical reports were split. Some doctors held that the cause of the death was related to heavy metals the workers were exposed to, whereas the other group of doctors ruled that they died of HIV/AIDS.

In addition, it has been known in adjacent communities that sewage has been drained from factories into the Mae Kuang River. Lately, a group of academics found chemical contamination of underground water similar to a case in Taiwan where an area which used to house electronics facilities had to be declared a crisis area by the government after the factories had pulled out, due to extensive contamination of underground water. The estimated costs of environmental restoration are exorbitant. 

Did you mean to say the problems can be attributed to the Industrial Estate Act?

That an industrial estate is governed by a special regulation, namely the Industrial Estate Act, makes proper inspection by the Ministry of Labour almost impossible. The factories simply claim confidentiality when requested to provide information related to chemicals. It’s like a territory with special autonomy and outsiders are generally shunned. Most people may think the Tambon Administration Organization should have authority and oversight over the industrial estates. But given the complex nature of chemical use, would the TAO have enough knowledge to handle issues related to environmental and occupational health such as industrial waste, or the impacts of chemical contamination or workers’ health? 

Could you tell us about recent attempts to purge the Labour Union of Hoya Glass Disk (Thailand) Ltd.?

Attempts by Hoya’s workers to get organized as a union had been suppressed, and thus they had lacked the power to bargain. Without collective bargaining in place and without participation in environmental and occupational health management, the workers barely have any participation and all the issues have been decided unilaterally by the company.  Some workers who have risen up to form a union were recently sacked. But many workers in the company have received training and knowledge and have started to be aware of their rights. And with help from an embedded NGO, their conscientization efforts have become stronger and have led to collective moves among the workers to demand the formation of labour unions as a front for bargaining. 

Most workers in the electronics sector, despite their rather high education, command very low wages since employers claim the effects of the 1997 economic crisis. Concerning health, many workers have succumbed to work-related ailments. Many have to retire early to live their lives in their rural hometown due to their frail health. Despite the laws that make overtime work voluntary, most workers are forced to take it since it gives the companies more production flexibility. When production targets need to be met, the workers are told to take OT. Despite claiming that OT is voluntary, the companies employ different techniques to impose it such as by putting off workers’ holidays, transferring them to other sections, etc. The complex conditions set out by the employers may even have forced workers to work OT, even on Sundays, and even after they have been working for 12 hours straight.

Could you shed light on your research findings on Thai labour? 

From my studies, a general trend is that most Thai workers have to put up with longer working hours than workers in the West. Most Thai workers work 80 hours per week on average, whereas their Western counterparts work 35. Even in Cambodia, the laws do not permit more than four hours of OT work each day. With the high demands of work, most Thai workers have no time for other activities, or to acquire knowledge concerning their rights, or even to spend time with their families. 

It is generally understood that most Thai workers come from the rural sector and have low levels of education. They work in small- to medium-sized factories. Given the size of the factories, it is difficult for them to bargain for their benefits.  But Hoya is a large company and the workers have the potential to form a union. And actually, most core workers who helped to form the union have high education levels and are employed in high-ranking positions such as supervisors. Therefore, of the 18 council members, most of them are not employed at the production level. After verifying all the information, the Ministry of Labour approved their union registration. Prior to the formation of a union, the core workers need to be educated. If they do not have much education, they do not stand any chance of getting their union registered. 

Why was the union disbanded, despite being in operation for almost one year?

It is interesting that the labour union was disbanded after it had been operating for almost one year. The registration was revoked on the claim that some council members were unqualified. The authorities held that some council members were high-level employees and were not directly involved with production. Thus they are not eligible to register as council members. It seems like an attempt to trample on unions. The process to register a labour union is not that easy. It takes a long time for the government to verify the information involved and contact with certain officers in the Ministry of Labour has been used to accelerate the process.

But after the union had been registered and formed, and they became active in collective bargaining, the revocation order came. And the day the workers learned about the revocation of the labour union was exactly the same day that the company sacked them. It is worth wondering why the revocation order reached the workers on 4 August 2008, the same day they received the dismissal orders from their employer. It is quite surprising how the acts of the authorities and the employer seem to coordinate so well on this matter. 

What is your take on the Ministry of Labour concerning the revocation of the union registration?

It shows partiality by the state. Instead of treating the workers’ efforts as an attempt to increase their bargaining power, not to harm the company, but to seek ways to negotiate a peaceful co-existence between the workers and the company, the state simply stuck to the letter of the law and applied it to the workers. They simply interpreted that some council members are in the company administration. But discontinuation of employment lies exclusively in the hands of the employer. On one hand, the state should treat the union as a tool to enable workers to ensure fairness and a better life. On the other had, investors should be encouraged to care for the workers as well. The state should have a broader vision. 

Translated by Pipob Udomittipong