Burmese migrant workers recently went on a one day strike at a Thai rubber plantation in Surat Thani province after managers failed to pay them their promised wages in full. The workers received only half of the amount owed to them on the 15,000 tree plantation in quarter No. 4, Taung Rin Town, Surat Thani Provinces.
The strike occurred on February 12th when 12 out of the 14 households working on the plantation refused to work. The female worker who organized the strike told an IMNA source that although they were owed 8,000 baht per household they received only 4,000 baht. Workers are paid every 10 to 15 days, according to the woman, and their wage depends on the price of rubber – currently very low due at 44% less than 2008. They are meant to get 40% of the profits after sending the rubber sap to the Thai owner.
“We work 2,000 rubber trees and get 300 kilos per day. When the rubber price was good, the plantation managers paid the full 40%. Now the two managers have cut our wage, even though the owner has a good relationship with us. That is why we wanted the owner to know that the managers were cheating us. That is why we complained and refused to work for a day.” She explained that she had been working at the plantation for a year while other workers had been there for longer but were too uneducated to know they were being paid less than they were owed.
The woman said that the strike was to let the big boss know they were unhappy. “Since we complained like that, the managers have been treating us well. We think we will get the full amount on February 20th.” This date is their next scheduled pay day and currently all the 14 households are back to work as normal.
However, the workers originally planned to strike until their wages were paid in full but were too afraid to continue, the woman told our source. When asked by the managers why they did not go to workers many of them did not mention their complaint regarding the wages but said it was because of woman’s leadership.
Fear of punishment by managers often prevents migrant workers acting in unison over pay complaints. U Myint Wai from the Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma (TADCB) explained that the organization would help the workers as much as they could but the complaint in Surat Thani was led by only one worker. “If all the workers involved in that case complained to their boss, they would have a chance. But only a few workers were involved in the complaint. If they are united, that can help until they get the full wage.”
In another case, most workers on a rubber plantation in Phang nga Province left their jobs because the boss had not paid their wages. One of the workers said, “I have worked on this plantation for one month. The workers are supposed to get half of the product and the boss will get half. But now we get only 40%. Because we only got 40%, we have very little profit after we pay for supplies.”
A different worker on the Phang nga plantation asked about the missing money in front of a guest of the boss. Later, the boss came to the worker’s home with a gun and threatened him saying, “I will not pay the money. What do you want to do about that?” After this incident the worker and his wife left the plantation. There are now no workers left to work the 600 trees.
Threatening violence is one way of preventing migrant workers complaining about pay and conditions. Another way is to threaten to report undocumented workers to the Thai authorities. Lack of official documents may prevent many migrant workers from complaining or taking action. However, in the case of the Surat Thani plantation all the workers had documents which made their position much stronger. As the woman worker who lead the strike said: “We had Thai ID cards so we could do this. If we didn’t have ID cards we couldn’t do this.”
