Five labor union leaders at a Chinese-owned garment factory in Yangon that supplies global brands Zara and Pull & Bear face charges under the Sedition Law and Unlawful Association Act after they were arrested for leading a protest for a pay rise of 800 kyats (38 US cents) a day earlier this month.
Three others who supported the union leaders also face the same charges.
Both Zara and Pull & Bear are owned by Spanish company Inditex, whose founder and largest shareholder, Amancio Ortega, has a net worth of US$ 89.4 billion, according to Forbes. The magazine lists him as the 15th richest person in the world.
The five union leaders who were protesting for a pay rise of 38 US cents a day were arrested on June 14 and taken to a junta interrogation center in Shwe Pyi Thar before being remanded in custody.
Seven leaders of the labor union 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.
Two union leaders remain in hiding.
An employee of Hosheng’s factory said the eight people arrested “were remanded in custody at Shwe Pyi Thar police station.”
“Among the detainees are five members of the labor union [and] two labor activists. The [third] one [arrested] is the owner of the venue where [labor union members] held a meeting. He was arrested for leasing the venue [to them],” the factory worker said.
The factory, which employs more than 1,000 workers, has a well-documented history of violating the rights of its workers, labor rights activists say.
A spokesperson for Action Labor Rights, a non-profit promoting labor rights in Myanmar, said: “They didn’t make any political demand. It was just an industrial dispute. Why has [the regime] filed political charges against them? What is its motive? Employees only complained about violations of their rights. Does [the regime] want to protect the employer who violated their rights?”
If convicted, the detainees face up to three years in prison under the Unlawful Association Act and a fine, and up to two years in prison more under Section 505 (a).
The Federation of Myanmar Construction and Timber Industry Trade Unions said it had reported the arrests to the International Labor Organization (ILO). Similar cases have been reported in other factories in the country, it said.
The European Union’s delegation to Myanmar also issued a statement about the arrest on June 20. 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.”
At the conference “No Time Left to Stop the Consolidation of the Dictatorship in Burma/Myanmar” in Rome on June 21, representatives of the parallel National Unity Government, ethnic organizations and Confederation of Trade Unions Myanmar discussed the junta’s violations of human rights and labor rights and called for effective sanctions against the regime.
Inditex has reportedly said it would stop buying from Hosheng (Myanmar) Garment and that it had “blocked suppliers from working with this factory [and it is] working on a gradual and responsible exit from Myanmar.”
It has not made the timeframe of its “gradual and responsible exit from Myanmar” public, however.
The company’s code of conduct for manufacturers and suppliers guarantees the right to collective bargaining and states: “wages should always be enough to meet at least the basic needs of workers and their families and any other which might be considered as reasonable additional needs.”
Its human rights code states: “Inditex integrates responsible and ethical practices into everything we do, both internally and in our relations with third parties, to thus promote respect for human rights of all our employees and anyone we relate within the course of our business.”
Two leaders of the trade union at a garment factory operated by Thai-owned Sun Apparel (Myanmar) Co. Ltd. in Yangon’s Hlaing Tharyar Township were arrested in the second week of June after they demanded a pay increase and better working conditions.
