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17 September, 2002Boonwat Sodok is a metalworker at a car parts manufacturer in Bangkok, Thailand. After being hit by the "Asian crisis" in 1997, Thailand is slowly recovering, and once again attracting foreign investors.
BY MOGENS HAVNSØE PETERSEN
With its tropical climate and high humidity, Thailand has for many years been a major agricultural nation. Over the last 15 years, agriculture's position as the main export sector has been taken over by the rapidly growing manufacturing industry in the country. Bangkok, with 8 million inhabitants, is Thailand's industrial centre.
Boonwat Sodok's workplace, Aoyama Thai Co., is an example of the industrialisation in Thailand. The factory is owned by Japanese investors and constitutes a part of a major Japanese group specialising in the supply of parts for the automotive industry. Everything from bolts, nuts and jacks to gears is manufactured at the plant.
The development of the manufacturing industry in Thailand is the result of investments made by the U.S. and high-growth economies in Asia: Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. In the 1960s, the manufacturing industry only contributed with 7 per cent of Thailand's gross domestic product. Currently, it accounts for one third. Export of rice and exotic fruits has been overtaken by car parts, electronics and other industrial products.
The shift from a rural economy to an economy based on the manufacturing industry has led to major migrations from villages to the big cities. Both Boonwat and his wife Ratree come from rural districts in the north of Thailand.
EXPORT MARKETS
Today, Thailand's biggest export markets are the USA, Japan, Singapore, Germany and Taiwan. Exports, which include microprocessors, car parts, computers, garments and electrical equipment, are highest to the nearby neighbours, but Thailand is going full steam ahead as a subcontractor in many parts of the manufacturing industry. Aoyama Thai Co. is part of a big Japanese family business, in which the factory in Thailand is only one out of a score of factories, 17 of which are in Japan and one in the U.S. The company supplies a number of components to the car industry and the motorbike industry, counting Suzuki, Toyota, Kawasaki and General Motors among its customers. Boonwat Sodok joined the company in 1993. His workplace is the production hall, located a bit away from the big factory hall where a great many punching machines of varying size and machines for the making of screws and nuts generate an inferno of noise. The somewhat more advanced jacks are one of Boonwat's work areas, and even if some of the work process has been automated, it is a job that calls for both precision and craftsmanship. Items are first turned on a good old-fashioned lathe and are then adjusted by frequent use of the slide gauge to fit precisely into the template where Boonwat ends by putting his red India-ink pen signature. COINCIDENCES
The fact that he ended up in this very job at this very factory is the final element in a number of coincidences and external events, since at the age of 14 he came with an older sister to Bangkok from Boriram province, where he was born and grew up in a family of rice peasants. "At first, when I came to Bangkok with my sister, I worked in construction, but there wasn't work for me every day. I joined a metal processing company as a casual labourer. I spent seven months there but did not get a permanent job," he says. Boonwat returned to construction, not only because there were jobs to be had, but also because he had a fingernail torn off in a machine at the metal processing plant, and thus feared machines. Consequently, he was really frightened when he accepted the job that one of his father's friends spotted for him at Aoyama. "I was really scared when I started. I did not like the idea of working at a metal processing plant again. But I soon felt safe, and now I really like my work," he says. OVERTIME NECESSARY
Boonwat and his family - wife Ratree, son Ratsapa, daughter Siriya - could not live on the money he makes working normal hours. With the help of overtime, he doubles his wage, but still barely covers their expenses. The normal working hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., from Monday to Friday and every other Saturday, but Boonwat works almost every day until after 7 p.m. - on some days even until 10 p.m. Even Sundays can be working days sometimes, but occasionally his wife asks him to stay home with the family. Holidays? Yes, they exist - 7 days in the summer and 10 days throughout the year. When an employee reaches the pension age, he receives a large sum of money (corresponding to 3-5 years of fulltime work), once and for all. However, for Boonwat retirement is far away. Before then, his children's future must be ensured and, like most parents in all parts of the world, he wants the best for his children. "They must have a good education. I will do a lot to achieve that. They must learn more than I have. Maybe I can get some more education myself, if the money is there, when the children get bigger and my wife can start working. The way it is now, I have neither the money, the time nor the strength." PLEASURES AND DREAMS
When Boonwat returns home from work, he plays with his children. The total number of toys they have fit into a shoebox, but they love to ride on their father's back, pretending he is an elephant. The small rented one-room apartment is dominated by a large mattress on the floor, where the whole family sleeps. But they also have a fridge and a toilet with wash basin. Cooking and the washing of clothes are done in a small, closed yard behind the building. Other items in the room are a small folding wardrobe and a rack with a fry-cooker and a thermo flask, as well as a modest number of cutlery items. For meals, a small table is unfolded, where the evening meal is consumed - either purchased ready-made or as raw materials from a small market a few minutes away from the family's dwelling. The other items in the room can be counted on two hands, and on the wall is only a small mirror and a poster to show that the family has donated some money to a temple. Their big dream is to be able to afford a pickup truck. "That would enable us to visit our families," says Boonwat. An even bigger dream would be to make enough money to buy a sugar farm in his native province. "Bangkok is not my home, but right now I just think about doing as well as possible here."
Today, Thailand's biggest export markets are the USA, Japan, Singapore, Germany and Taiwan. Exports, which include microprocessors, car parts, computers, garments and electrical equipment, are highest to the nearby neighbours, but Thailand is going full steam ahead as a subcontractor in many parts of the manufacturing industry. Aoyama Thai Co. is part of a big Japanese family business, in which the factory in Thailand is only one out of a score of factories, 17 of which are in Japan and one in the U.S. The company supplies a number of components to the car industry and the motorbike industry, counting Suzuki, Toyota, Kawasaki and General Motors among its customers. Boonwat Sodok joined the company in 1993. His workplace is the production hall, located a bit away from the big factory hall where a great many punching machines of varying size and machines for the making of screws and nuts generate an inferno of noise. The somewhat more advanced jacks are one of Boonwat's work areas, and even if some of the work process has been automated, it is a job that calls for both precision and craftsmanship. Items are first turned on a good old-fashioned lathe and are then adjusted by frequent use of the slide gauge to fit precisely into the template where Boonwat ends by putting his red India-ink pen signature. COINCIDENCES
The fact that he ended up in this very job at this very factory is the final element in a number of coincidences and external events, since at the age of 14 he came with an older sister to Bangkok from Boriram province, where he was born and grew up in a family of rice peasants. "At first, when I came to Bangkok with my sister, I worked in construction, but there wasn't work for me every day. I joined a metal processing company as a casual labourer. I spent seven months there but did not get a permanent job," he says. Boonwat returned to construction, not only because there were jobs to be had, but also because he had a fingernail torn off in a machine at the metal processing plant, and thus feared machines. Consequently, he was really frightened when he accepted the job that one of his father's friends spotted for him at Aoyama. "I was really scared when I started. I did not like the idea of working at a metal processing plant again. But I soon felt safe, and now I really like my work," he says. OVERTIME NECESSARY
Boonwat and his family - wife Ratree, son Ratsapa, daughter Siriya - could not live on the money he makes working normal hours. With the help of overtime, he doubles his wage, but still barely covers their expenses. The normal working hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., from Monday to Friday and every other Saturday, but Boonwat works almost every day until after 7 p.m. - on some days even until 10 p.m. Even Sundays can be working days sometimes, but occasionally his wife asks him to stay home with the family. Holidays? Yes, they exist - 7 days in the summer and 10 days throughout the year. When an employee reaches the pension age, he receives a large sum of money (corresponding to 3-5 years of fulltime work), once and for all. However, for Boonwat retirement is far away. Before then, his children's future must be ensured and, like most parents in all parts of the world, he wants the best for his children. "They must have a good education. I will do a lot to achieve that. They must learn more than I have. Maybe I can get some more education myself, if the money is there, when the children get bigger and my wife can start working. The way it is now, I have neither the money, the time nor the strength." PLEASURES AND DREAMS
When Boonwat returns home from work, he plays with his children. The total number of toys they have fit into a shoebox, but they love to ride on their father's back, pretending he is an elephant. The small rented one-room apartment is dominated by a large mattress on the floor, where the whole family sleeps. But they also have a fridge and a toilet with wash basin. Cooking and the washing of clothes are done in a small, closed yard behind the building. Other items in the room are a small folding wardrobe and a rack with a fry-cooker and a thermo flask, as well as a modest number of cutlery items. For meals, a small table is unfolded, where the evening meal is consumed - either purchased ready-made or as raw materials from a small market a few minutes away from the family's dwelling. The other items in the room can be counted on two hands, and on the wall is only a small mirror and a poster to show that the family has donated some money to a temple. Their big dream is to be able to afford a pickup truck. "That would enable us to visit our families," says Boonwat. An even bigger dream would be to make enough money to buy a sugar farm in his native province. "Bangkok is not my home, but right now I just think about doing as well as possible here."