Some 1,000 workers to protest at US embassy
Some 1,000 Thai lingerie workers plan to protest outside the US embassy over a labor dispute, defying the post-coup government's ban on staging rallies, a union member said Saturday.
The laid-off workers from Gina Form Bra, which makes underwear for US apparel giants such as Victoria's Secret, Calvin Klein and Gap, will rally on Sunday to demand severance payments, the union member said.Since a bloodless coup on September 19 that ousted Thaksin Shinawatra's government, Thai military leaders have imposed martial law, scrapped planned elections, banned public gatherings and threatened action against media. But the union member said they had no choice but to protest and insisted their planned gathering was not politically motivated. "Of course, we are afraid of martial law, but we are really suffering," saidmthe union member, who declined to be named. "Our rally has nothing to do with politics and the new government should understand our problems," he said, referring to the government of Thailand's military-backed premier Surayud Chulanont. Owned by Hong Kong's Clover Group, a leading maker of high-end lingerie, Gina Form Bra employs 1,600 workers with women making up 95 percent of its work force. Clover told Gina Form Bra earlier in the month that the company would shut down its operations in Thailand by the end of October and transfer its businesses to China. The union member said the laid-off workers would demand an estimated 97 million baht (2.6 million dollars) in severance payments. Agence France-Presse
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