Win Nay Aung Thant works from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. or 7 p.m., at a garment factory in Myanmar and is paid just enough to survive. The factory’s electrical wiring is unsafe and Win says “after a day’s work, we are happy to still be alive.”
Like many migrant workers, Filipinos seeking domestic work in other countries must pay large fees to labor brokers to get a job–a situation that leads to human trafficking, says Rowena Borja. A domestic worker in Hong Kong originally from the Philippines, Borja is working with the Hong Kong Confederation of Trade Unions (HKCTU) to help other domestic workers get rights on the job.
Workers in Myanmar are free to form unions for the first time in decades since the start of a military dictatorship. At the Coca-Cola plant in Yangon, workers are members of the Confederation of Trade Unions of Myanmar.
“We need to form more unions in our country, Myanmar,” says Ko So Ko Ko Naing, a processing technician at Coca-Cola. “Only then can we achieve a safe work environment that we all want.”
I am Ma Lwin Lwin Kyaw. I come from Mawlamyainggyun Township in Ayeyarwaddy Region and work here (in the Hlaing Thar Yar factory district outside Yangon).
I started to work in 2012 in the garment factory. I am 26 years old. I joined the trade union (the Confederation of Trade Unions-Myanmar, CTUM) as a member since 2013.
There were many problems in the period when we started to join the trade union. Then after working together with CTUM, we gained many benefits and now we can work peacefully in the worksites.