Laborers in the Three Pagodas Pass (TPP) Sub-Township of Karen State on the Thai-Burma border have applied for registration to organize a labor union, according to committee members.
Chairman Ko Way Phyo Kywe said that the registration with the Pa-an District’s Labor Affairs Department was on May 29, 2012, and led by labor committee members Chairman Ko Way Phyo Kywe, Secretary Ko Aung Myint Oo, Financier Ma Thi Dar Kyaw, and Central Executive Committee Members Ko Kyaw Nine and Ko Yan Nine Minn.
“Five members, including me, went for registeration. Presently, we have the receipt from “Form No. 6.” Our registration will be approved soon.”
Referring to sources from the Ministry of Labor, Ko Way Phyo Kywe said that the registration would be approved in June and the union would be officially legal at that time.
Even though the labor union activities were previously kept secret, their opening ceremony was cerebrated at the Dhamma Hay Wun Monastery in TPP on May 22, 2012.
Ceremony attendees included officials from the New Mon State Party (NMSP), Karen Peace Council (KPC), and National League for Democracy (NLD) offices in TPP along with around 50 labor activists.
The labor union will be the first formed by laborers working in the sewing and leather industries in TPP.
The TPP region has more than forty sewing and shoe-making factories, and about one hundred thousand Burmese laborers cross daily from Burma into Thailand for work, according to Ko Way Phyo Kywe.
Last year, TPP laborers making this daily border crossing for work in the shoe factories experienced conflicts with Thai businessmen that sometimes grew into organized protests. This newly formed labor union was the group that stood up for and protected the laborers at that time.
The present labor union counts more than 30 members including those mentioned above and Executive Members Ko Hlwin Moe and Ko Thet Naing.
