“Myanmar Factory Workers Strike for Decent Wages, End to Abuse” 27 November 2024

Some 500 factory workers are on strike in Yangon, Myanmar, demanding a return to the job for colleagues who joined them in seeking decent wages and working hours and a workplace free from violence and abuse. Since the strike began in November, more than 50 workers have been fired. On November 22, the company brought in a group of 20 agents from the repressive military junta to threaten workers with physical violence to break the strike.

The members of the Federation of General Workers of Myanmar (FGWM) at the Charis Sculpture factory went on strike in November after the employer did not comply with the terms of a new contract negotiated in July. 

The Taiwan-owned Wise Unicorn Industrial Ltd., owner of Charis Sculpture, has an estimated annual revenue between $10 million and $50 million. Yet in October, when workers protested the employer’s refusal to pay overtime as promised, workers described being followed out of the factory, with two physically attacked. 

After the workers went on strike inside the factory November 6 and boosted their list of demands to include dismissal of the director who they say assaulted two workers, the company fired 13 workers, including strike leaders...

By November 11, workers were denied entry to the factory and nearly 350 workers remain outside on strike...