10 June, 2021IndustriALL Global Union has launched a Labour Start campaign to demand Yachiyoda Alloy Wheel, an alloy wheels manufacturing company in Thailand, to immediately reinstate 37 union members and leaders.
The company suspended operations on 16-31 May 2020 due to the pandemic, forcing workers to apply for a remedy fund granting 62 per cent of the wages. Most workers reluctantly accepted and were forced to get loans from the company when the social security office failed to pay on time.
The company requested that workers to apply for the remedy fund again for 15-30 June 2020. The Yachiyoda Thailand Labour Union advised all workers to follow the instruction.
On 25 June last year, the company dismissed 32 union members who had refused to apply for the remedy fund. On 7 September, the company dismissed the leaders of Yachiyoda Thailand Workers’ Union, Pichetsak Kansorn and Sakchai Sritanai, accusing the union for instructing members to contaminate the products and blatantly told them that the owner did not want a union.
The union busting continued until January 2021. In total, 37 union members including five leaders have been dismissed and locked out. The Yachiyoda union members dismissed by the company are affiliated to IndustriALL through the Confederation of Industrial Labour of Thailand (CILT).
IndustriALL has sent letters to the company, demanding that all 37 unionists are reinstated with back pay and benefits, but the letters fell on deaf ears.
Prasit Prasopsuk, CILT president, says:
“We are outraged by the anti-union discrimination at Yachiyoda Alloy. The workers’ union has been very cooperative and advised members to apply for remedy funds during the suspension. Yet the company used the excuse of product contamination to destroy our local union.”
Valter Sanches, IndustriALL general secretary, says:
“The unfair dismissals have violated Thai labour law prohibiting the termination of employment of a worker because of his or her union membership. Yachiyoda’s behaviour is in blatant violation of international core labour standards.”