The strike at Sumeda Myanmar Win-win Clothing Co., Ltd. started on December 3 and has lasted for more than 20 days. Currently, more than 1,800 workers are participating in the strike. The factory has been shut down for more than half a month. The total loss in production value, rent, water and electricity, labor costs, and additional air freight have totaled more than 1 million US dollars…
Myanmar’s thriving textile and garment industry
With the 2011 Since the reform and opening up, Myanmar’s economy has developed rapidly, and the most eye-catching industrial sector is undoubtedly the textile and garment industry.
According to Myanmar’s Ministry of Commerce, ready-made garment products have become Myanmar’s main export products. In 2018, exports in the textile field earned US$4.6 billion, and it is predicted that it will reach US$10 billion in 2030. In the first month of this fiscal year (2019-2020) (October 1 to 25), foreign exchange earnings from garment exports exceeded the US$320 million mark, a year-on-year increase of approximately US$40 million. In addition, the Myanmar Textile Industry Association has a total of 500 members. Garment factories have created more than 500,000 jobs. Most of the foreign investment entering Myanmar in recent years has been in the textile field.
However, the booming textile and garment industry also has a worrying side. The textile and garment industry, which is a labor-intensive industry, has always been on strike.” “Heavily affected area”, in recent years, an average of about 30-40 strikes have occurred every year, and labor-management conflicts are extremely prominent. The intensifying labor-capital conflict has also seriously affected the development prospects and speed of the textile and garment industry, and also affected the investment confidence of enterprises and investors.
The current situation of the strike in Sumeda
Recently, Myanmar’s “Golden Phoenix News” The reporter learned that a large-scale strike occurred at Sumeda Myanmar Win-win Clothing Co., Ltd. located in Shwebida Industrial Zone in Yangon.
According to the reporter’s understanding, the strike of Sumeda Myanmar Shuangying Clothing Co., Ltd. started on December 3 and has lasted for more than 20 days. There are more than 1,800 workers. Surveillance showed that striking workers sat in silence, played with mobile phones, and played football in the open space of the factory. On the morning of December 20, some striking workers suddenly broke into the company’s management office, locked and blocked the doors and windows, forcibly confiscated the managers’ mobile phones, and used Umbrellas and clothing blocked surveillance cameras, and some even used bamboo poles to destroy the cameras.
“I don’t know what they (striking workers) want to do to us. There are so many of them that we don’t dare to resist, so we can only hand over our mobile phones.” A reporter said at noon on the 20th The Burmese factory managers who were rescued by the police were still frightened when they recalled the scene.
Review of the incident
So, what is the reason for this strike? And rise?
According to the reporter’s understanding, the garment-making process of Sumeda Myanmar Shuangying Clothing Co., Ltd. has 5 processes. Employees in different positions are responsible for different processes. Regarding wages, there is a template process that the Burmese employees in the three production workshops cannot do, so it has always been the responsibility of workers in other workshops. In October 2019, when the factory calculated wages and labor costs, it was discovered that the factory had been subsidizing the wages for the template process separately, which is equivalent to the salary cost of two template processes to make one piece of clothing.
“This is unreasonable. Four workers are doing four processes and getting paid for five processes.” Manager L (pseudonym) of Sumeda Myanmar Win-win Clothing Co., Ltd. , the same below.) told the reporter of Myanmar’s “Golden Phoenix News”.
After research and discussion, the company decided to abolish the salary of a template process, which is the part of the salary that the four Burmese workers who are not responsible for the template process have been receiving. In October this year Let the workshop director issue notices and communicate with employees.
The second factory of Sumeda Myanmar Shuangying Clothing Co., Ltd. has four production workshops. Since the workshop director of the third workshop has not contacted the involved The workers explained that the company’s notice and communication were in place. Workers in the third workshop could not understand how their wages were missing, nor how their wages were calculated, so they went on strike on December 3 and blocked the factory door. Do not allow companies to transport containers filled with ready-made garments to the terminal for shipment. The company had no choice but to spend about 300,000 US dollars in freight to transport 21 containers of order goods by air.
When the company learned that the workers were on strike, in order not to affect production, the company immediately deducted the extra money it had decided to deduct.�(Strike workers) would threaten us on the bus home, saying that they would beat us if we did not join the strike. ” said the Burmese team leader. Moreover, payday is coming soon, and the Burmese team leader is worried that the strike will affect the factory’s normal salary payment.
Negotiations reached an impasse
On December 20, 2019, SUMEC Myanmar Win-win Clothing Co., Ltd. and the Myanmar CTUM Trade Union agreed to meet at Sprite at 2:30 p.m. The Ministry of Labor of Sudan is conducting consultations and negotiations on the strike of workers in SUMEC.
A group of Chinese management from SUMEC who participated in the negotiations arrived at the Ministry of Labor of SUMEC at 2:27 pm and waited for the appointment Half an hour later, I was told that the union called and said it could not participate in the negotiations and asked for leave. Without negotiations, the strike, which lasted for half a month, seemed to have reached a deadlock.
Labor and management need “lubricant”
The Sumeida strike triggered a long-lasting and fierce “war”, but for the entire Myanmar textile and garment industry, this is only It’s just one of the more intense and typical strikes among the many.
Conflicts between labor and management are inevitable, but when conflicts intensify, it is always necessary to Resolve through consultation and negotiation. If labor conflicts in the textile and garment industry are not alleviated, they will affect Myanmar’s economic development and export earnings in the long term. It is natural to protect the legitimate rights and interests of workers, but coordination is required to ease labor conflicts and create a harmonious and stable investment and business environment. , and also need to have practical mechanisms and methods. It is expected that the authorities will introduce more reasonable laws and regulations for the textile industry, make effective and effective coordination work, and become the “lubricant” of labor conflicts.</p
