A textile company cut wages in November because the workers failed to reach production targets. In response 200 workers on strike since December 7. Executives deserting a meeting scheduled yesterday. Sued another group of workers who organized a protest last month.

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Yangon (AsiaNews) - More than 200 workers in Yangon’s textile industry have been on strike for 7 days in protest against non-payment of wages for the month of November.  The company management decided to freeze wages because employees failed to achieve the production targets for the month.

As of December 7 the workers - at least two-thirds of the workforce of Hteik Tan Myanmar Garment Factory – have been on strike rallying in a picket in front of the complex 4 Hlaingthayar industrial park, in the commercial capital of the former Burma.

Moe Sanda Myin, employee representative, explains that workers received less than half the salary for November. "The owner’s representative … accused us of failing to work up to expectations. But as we worked for the entire month”,he told Radio Free Asia (RFA).

Yesterday a meeting between a delegation of workers and company management was due to be held, to settle the dispute.  However, management cancelled the talks at the last minute. The workers also report that, since the beginning of the strike, management have banned their use of toilets and the dormitory where they usually rest at night.

Meanwhile the management of a shoe factory in the district 3 of Hlaingthayar have sued a group of 15 workers who, last month, demanded the reinstatement of dismissed union leaders. The representative of the workers union Htet Aung Thu Htet Thu Aung did not provide details of why the union leaders were fired by the factory management or the alleged acts committed by the workers during last month’s protests, but refer to obscene acts or songs, obstruction, defamation and abetting, respectively.

Hlaingthayar is one of Myanmar’s largest industrial parks and has endured a number of labor disputes in recent years, as investors flock to the country transitioning from a military regime to a fledgling democracy. In May, thousands of mostly female factory workers from Hlaingthayar and two other industrial parks in Yangon marked International Workers’ Day by marching through the city to demand an increase in their minimum wage.

Experts in Burmese labor law explain that most of the laws concerning work date back to the British colonial era and are difficult to reconcile with the rapid changes that have occurred in recent years.

So far it is unknown if the companies involved in the protests produce goods for the domestic market or for large international brands.

• MYANMAR
• LABOUR
• LAW
• STRIKE
• WORKERS