A labor union leader at a Chinese-owned garment factory in Yangon that supplies global brand Zara was arrested by the junta on Wednesday after calling on the factory’s management to raise wages for workers by 800 kyats (about 38 US cents) a day.
Ma Thu Thu San and six other executive members of the union were fired from their jobs 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.
The 28-year-old union leader was subsequently 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 office.
Union leader Ma May Thu Min was also arrested, but she was dropped off at a police station and allowed to return home.
Ma Thu Thu San was taken to the military’s Shwe Pyi Thar interrogation center, factory workers said.
“They arrested her after accusing her of spreading photos and voice recordings of military personnel on social media,” said a worker who requested anonymity due to security concerns.
On June 12 and 13, more than 600 workers from Hosheng Myanmar’s factory protested against management for firing the members of their union’s executive committee.
On June 13, news outlet Myanmar Labour News, published a video report showing military officers threatening protesting workers at Hosheng Myanmar’s factory.
The factory employs more than 1,000 workers.
It has a history of violating workers’ rights, labor rights activists say.
Since the coup, it has become commonplace for garment factory management to call in the junta’s troops when a dispute with workers breaks out.
The troops threaten and intimidate workers to force them to end protests or retract calls for collective bargaining, workers and union leaders say.
About 1.6 million workers lost their jobs in Myanmar after the military coup, and more than 300,000 of them were working in the garment sector, the International Labour Organization said last year.
