iieiiei1eWrkers - Leicester Research Archive - University of Leicester

In the present era of resurgent capital, the disposessed peasants in the
countryside and workers in the urban areas continue to be exploited. The
recent contraction in the agriculture sector in which 67% of the working
population earn their living was hit particularly hard. Since priority is placed
on the industrial sector, there are few protective measures for the wage earning
and small holding peasants. On the contrary, the 'Summer Employment
Scheme' and the modified modernisation scheme, the so called 'Rural Poverty
Programme', have been extracting free labour from the peasants in a similar
way to the Sakdina period, while allowing large agribusinesses to penetrate
deeper into this sector. In addition, rice exports have been severely daniaged
beginning in the 1985/1986 season, when the US government passed its Farm
Bill as part of its protectionist policy.
Neither the import substitution policy of the 1960s and early l970s, nor the
export policy that followed, was able to resolve the fundamental problem of
dependence on foreign investment and international trade. Peasants are caught
between a transformed agricultural sector which closes off alternative employment
and an industrial sector which cannot guarantee them their livelihood. The
unstable economic situation in recent years has generated fluctuations in
industrial disputes, but explosive confrontations have been successfully contained,
as the official record demonstrates (Bank of Thailand, 1983,1985);
year No. disputes No. strikes Working days
(workers) (workers) lost
1985 220 4 13,078
(49,073) (645)
1984 86 17 n/a
(32,752) (6,742)
1983 246 29 60,538
(112,193) (10,957)
However, reports from the Civil Liberty Union and the Asian Workers Solidarity
Links-Thailand, reveal serious breaches of the Labour Relations Law by
employers. These include; closing down plants in order to hire a whole new
workforce; sacking unionists; and not implementing minimum wage agreements.
Although there are 444 unions and four labour congresses, at the present time
union members account for only 1% of the 2.5 million strong workforce. The
main concerns of the unions are economic, achieving a better standard of living
for their members. Political issues are left to a small minority of union activists
(Petphrasert, 1986). However, several rallies were organised in conjunction with
the students, to protest against US protectionism in textiles - the Jenkin Bill -
and agricultural produce - the Farm Bill in 1985 and 1986.
14