Migrants March in Solidarity for International Workers’ Day

Hundreds of workers gathered in Mae Sot’s district office today to march through the town and along Asia Highway in solidarity for workers worldwide and to demand their rights and better working conditions for migrants working in Thailand.

Shouting “Fair opportunities for workers! Rights for Workers!” The workers marched down one of Mae Sot’s main streets, curious onlookers poked heads out of windows, shop fronts and doors to grab a look at the marchers as they snaked their way to Asia Highway.

“I am marching in solidarity about issues that affect us migrant workers here in Mae Sot, like equal pay, access to the minimum wage and better conditions,” Myint Myint Maung, 50, a garment worker originally from Burma, said as she relaxed after marching in the heat.

Myint Tazin Zaw, 32, works as a seamstress at a factory in Mae Sot. She said that few people had access to Thailand’s minimum wage of 300 baht per day. “No one I know gets the minimum wage. The most I hear of someone getting for work, as a seamstress is 200 Baht. Personally, if I work from 8am-9pm I will earn 146 Baht,” she said that life was difficult as an undocumented migrant worker in Mae Sot. “Our biggest fear is the Thai police. I have to live at the factory and share a single small room with 6 other people. Life is hard for us.”

An organiser of the march reported to Karen News that more than 20 organisations, including the Yaung Chi Oo Worker Association and the Women’s Union of Burma, attended.

Ooh Sein, 66, who works as a dustbin worker, said that marching gave him a strong feeling of solidarity. “To feed your family – to have dignity – you need to have workers rights,” he said that he would miss out on the 150 baht he would earn from working today but the march was worth it. “Although we have some rights on paper, in reality we have no rights. I am sad and angry so I came and marched today.”

The National Health Commission Office of Thailand on its website estimates that the number of migrant workers currently in Thailand at four million.

A survey of nearly 800 Mae Sot migrant workers by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and Tufts University in 2012 found that, “Over the last year, one in five migrants experienced eviction, one in ten suffered physical assault, and one in six was a victim of theft. More than a third of the migrants live in unsafe or unsanitary housing.”

The report noted that migrant workers often did jobs in the agricultural, manufacturing, construction, domestic work and fishing sectors; “jobs that are often dirty, degrading, and dangerous.”

International Workers’ Day is held on May 1st of every year.