Irrawaddy-June 20
At least seven union leaders at a Chinese-owned garment factory in Yangon that supplies global brand Zara have been sacked and five of them have been arrested after leading a protest for a pay rise of 800 kyats (38 US cents) a day earlier this month. All seven were fired from their jobs at the factory on June 10 after calling for an increase in the daily wage from 4,800 to 5,600 kyats at the factory operated by Hosheng (Myanmar) Garment Co. Ltd. in Yangon’s Shwe Pyi Thar Township. As previously reported, union leader Ma Thu Thu San, 28, was arrested on June 14 after she and other union leaders met with their employer’s representative to settle the dispute at the township’s General Administration Department (GAD) office. “Four more were arrested on June 14, and taken to a junta interrogation camp in Shwe Pyi Thar. Two others are in hiding,” a factory worker told The Irrawaddy on condition of anonymity. The detainees comprise three women and two men. Family members have not been able to contact them, the factory worker said.The European Union’s delegation to Myanmar responded with a statement today. It said: “We are concerned about the ongoing detention and welfare of a number of workers and labor rights organizers in the garment sector who have been detained … as a consequence of a labor dispute at the Hosheng Myanmar garment factory last week.”
Zara’s owner, Spanish company Inditex, will stop buying from Hosheng (Myanmar) Garment, news agency EFE reported today. “The events that have occurred in this factory in recent days represent a serious breach of our Code of Conduct for manufacturers and suppliers,” Inditex told EFE. Read more at:
