MAY DAY-THAILAND: Unions’ Win Makes for a Different Labour Day

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

BANGKOK, Apr 27 2004 (IPS) - In a growing sign of confidence, Thailand’s labour movement appears determined to step out of the government’s shadow when the country marks May Day this year.

Among the indicators of this shift are the separate plans underway to celebrate May 1, the day meant for the world’s workers. Labour activists here are giving the final touches to events that will have no truck with the customary government-sponsored events.

This will include a march on Saturday morning, which will begin at the city’s monument to celebrate democracy and end outside the United Nations’ Asia-Pacific regional headquarters.

The speeches that will follow are due to touch on themes such as stopping the privatisation of state enterprises, appeals to the government to strengthen its commitment to labour rights, opposition to the free trade agreements that Bangkok is pursuing with a host of countries including the United States, and calls for cancellation of debts incurred by Thai farmers.

”The independent labour movement wants to mark May Day this year on a serious note,” Junya Yimprasert, coordinator of the Thai Labour Campaign, a local labour rights lobby, told IPS. ”There are many problems that workers and farmers in Thailand are facing that need to be recognised.”

According to Junya, the organisers expect to attract between 50,000 to 100,000 supporters. ”Trade unions from the state sector, the private sector, many labour congresses and even farmers’ and grassroots groups will be attending this event.”

”This May Day will be a significant turning point for the Thai labour movement,” she asserted.

The usual practice on May Day has been to have its public events funded by the ministry of labour, whose officials thus succeed in influencing the tone and nature of the proceedings.

This year, too, the government will be hosting such a public celebration of workers’ rights, which some here say takes on more of a carnival atmosphere. It will be held in a field close to one of Bangkok’s renowned tourist attractions, the Grand Palace.

Annual attendance at the government-managed May Day events have averaged around 10,000 people, say labour rights groups.

Those following the activists’ plans for May Day, however, anticipate an element of drama on that day. That is because the paths of the two processions billed for the day – that of the independent labour organisations and labour groups attending the government-backed event – are expected to cross as they head to their respective final venues.

What has strengthened the resolve of the independent labour unionists this year is the over two-month agitation against privatisation launched by the trade unions at the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand (EGAT), the state-owned power utility.

Since late February, EGAT’s unionists have taken to the streets to stall the plans of Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s government to convert the power utility into a private venture and seek funds for it through shares sold in the Thai stock exchange.

Their lead has been supported by trade unions from the other state enterprises, unions from the private sector, a range of farmers’ organisations and grassroots networks and number of academics.

Some of the demonstrations by EGAT employees have attracted supporters in the tens of thousands. Opinion polls conducted since the protests began reveal growing public support for the arguments that the EGAT unions have been making.

Among these are arguments that a utility such as electricity should not be given to the private sector, despite the efficiency that privatisation aims to bring, because it could create a huge monopoly. There are also fears that consumers will have to pay more for electricity once the transfer is made.

Besides, these arguments continue, EGAT is one of Thailand’s most profitable state-owned enterprises and this would be undercut by privatisation.

The government’s response since then has conveyed a sense of uncertainty about the initial plans to privatise EGAT. After a sign of bravado by the Thaksin administration that it will not negotiate with the protesting workers, it caved in to talks. Then the privatisation plans were shelved earlier this month, for further study.

”The labour unions’ protest has succeeded in derailing EGAT’s initial privatisation plan, which will now have to proceed in a new format,” the English-language daily ‘The Nation’ commented Tuesday. ”Confusion reigns over whether the Thaksin government remains committed to privatise (EGAT).”

The government is in a ”very, very difficult position,” Giles Ungpakorn, a political science professor at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, said in an interview. ”The EGAT unions have shifted the argument about privatisation – whether to privatise at all.”

The public perception till this shift was that privatisation of state enterprises was acceptable, but that the mode of this privatisation had to be addressed properly.

What is more, adds Giles Ungpakorn, the EGAT unionists have also paved the way for alliances such as that between the labour movement and the grassroots movements based in the rural areas of Thailand.

”After the military coup in 1991, a number of observers began writing off the state unions. But this shows their recovery,” he said.

According to labour rights activist Junya, the protesting EGAT workers are being viewed as a symbol of hope by other unionists, since they are the largest union in the country with 30,000 members.

”It is the giant within the union movement in Thailand,” she said. ”If we let the government prevail over them, it will make labour resistance more difficult in the future.”

May Day, she adds, offers EGAT’s union a symbolic moment to assert the strength of trade unionism in Thailand. ”They also want to ensure that the labour movement gains its dignity and legitimacy.”