With its elaborate temples, exotic foods and friendly people, it is no wonder that thousands
spend their holidays in Thailand every year.
But the fact that Thailand also provides assembly-line work for the world's electronics and textiles
industries, is less known. Mobiles, laptops and mp3 players are all cheap
in Asia. The hard drives in all of these devices are largely manufactured in Thailand.
The country is the largest hard drive exporter in the world. Every third disk that is installed
comes from here. Half a million Thai people are working in the electronics sector.
No other industry is growing as quickly.
Christina Schroeder and Andrea Ben Lassoued from the Austrian Sirocco Agency are visiting
an industrial park north of Bangkok. They have travelled to Thailand to investigate
the working conditions in the electronics industry.
These workers are employed by a Taiwanese supplier for Sony, HP and Dell. Before the
night shift starts they buy snacks from the small food stalls outside the factory gates.
Filming inside the factory is not allowed. Twelve hour shifts are standard fare here,
and all the women work overtime. More than 10 hours every night is spent working on the machines.
They report pain in their legs and back. Their salary is less than 100 euros a month.
Most of the workers are women, young, unmarried women. Working 8 hours a day is not
enough - they must also work overtime, 5,6,7 days a week.
The company that ran this factory was Anyon. They manufactured parts for Samsung products,
until they suddenly closed up. To encourage investment, new companies in
Thailand are exempt from taxes for several years. When this exemption period has expired,
factories close, and then re-open under a new name.
But this time the workers did not play along, and instead occupied the factory. They are
demanding their unpaid wages and are preventing the management from starting again with new, cheaper labour.
The factory did not like the union. This year, they wanted to reopen the factory, Because he paid money for me, we are going outside.
A typical market in the province -- everywhere you look there is an abundance of fresh produce. But
the people have to work hard to make ends meet.
Such is the case for Manus Tebto, who comes to this market to find his dinner. Previously
his wife cooked for him, but after he had an accident at work, she left him.
Manus worked at the company Corrupad, a supplier of Samsung. The machine he used had a defect. Although
he had reported this several times, it was never repaired. In March 2008, at the end
of a 10-hour night shift, he caught his foot in the machine. Half his foot had to be removed.
For Manus, the cost of ever-cheaper computers has been high.
The management promised to support him financially. But so far he has seen no money.
Beneath the offices of German underwear manufacturer 'Triumph', the workers have built a camp. They
are protesting against the sacking of nearly 2000 people.
Despite an annual turnover of over 2 billion Swiss francs, Triumph justify these dismissals
by citing the economic crisis.
I've worked here 16 years as a seamstress, and often forget that I am now unemployed. I
am 43 years old. It is very difficult to find a new job. But if I go back to my village
it is worse, because there you can do nothing. There you cannot make money.
Protesters are making their presence felt here too, outside the department of labour protection in Bangkok.
Despite the economic collapse, another Triumph
factory in Nakon Sawan has been expanded. But the trade unions argue that it is running
on even cheaper labour and there is no worker representation.
Previously, Triumph were considered a good employer in Thailand. Pay was above average and the staff were allowed to organize themselves.
But then, says Triumph, came the economic crisis.
Whether Triumph is deliberately ridding itself of unionized workers, is difficult to prove.
The bottom line for these debt-ridden workers is that cheap goods still have a price, and
it is they who are left bearing the burden.
All of us are living in the debt circle. Many of us have external debt.
The interest rate that they are paying is 20 percent per month. The legal limit for yearly interest rates is 15 percent.
Triumph has paid these workers a severance pay, but they want to be reinstated into their
old jobs, and so the strike continues.
Ramplue Pooyen, who lost her job at Triumph, is still living in a poor neighbourhood near
the factory. She has begun packing her things. Her hope lies with the unionists, who have
travelled to Europe to negotiate with the management of the German underwear manufacturer.
If they fail to reverse the dismissals, then like many others, Ramplue will be forced to
return to her village, to a life with no income, and even more debts.