NGOs say Taiwanese company in Myanmar threatening striking workers

Taipei, Dec. 30 (CNA) A coalition of migrant rights groups rallied outside the Taipei office of a Taiwanese sculptures and figurines manufacturer and accused it of colluding with the Myanmar junta in suppressing striking local workers in Yangon.

In a joint statement, the groups accused the company -- Wise Unicorn -- of failing to pay workers at a factory it runs in Yangon their bonuses on Oct. 21, in violation of its contractual obligations, triggering the strike on Oct. 31.

More than 230 workers are still participating in the strike, which has drawn up to 300 workers at its peak, according to NGOs and Myanmar media reports.

The workers have demanded that their daily wages be raised to 9,000 kyats (US$4.27) and that they be paid an hourly rate of 2,000 kyats for overtime hours, the groups said.

Not only did Wise Unicorn not agree to those demands, it called in the Myanmar military to threaten the striking workers by driving military vehicles around the factory and sending rifle-wielding soldiers to the premises and take the workers' names, the groups alleged.

In addition, the groups demanded that the company immediately re-hire the more than 50 striking workers that it has laid off.

Wise Unicorn has infringed upon the basic rights of workers and given Taiwanese businesses a bad name, said Shih Yi-hsiang (施逸翔), a senior researcher at the Taiwan Association for Human Rights (TAHR), one of the groups making the accusations.

Wu Jing-ru (吳靜如), a researcher at the Taiwan International Workers' Association (TIWA), another of the NGOs, said some workers have reported being physically assaulted by a supervisor at the factory managed by Taiwanese and Chinese.

Calling Wise Unicorn's handling of the strike a form of forced labor, Shih said the case has been forwarded to the International Labor Organization.

Shih said his group will suggest to the coalition that a complaint also be filed with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) office in the hope that the United States government will take an interest in the case and determine it to be forced labor.

That could lead the CBP to temporarily ban the import of products sold by Wise Unicorn to the U.S., one of the company's main export markets.

In response, Wise Unicorn's owner, a woman surnamed Kao (高), said the company rejected the workers' demands because they had just received a salary increase in July.

Kao said the company initially filed a lawsuit against employees who claimed they had been assaulted by their supervisors but later reached an out-of-court settlement with them and withdrew the suit.

She maintained that no manager at the factory had assaulted any workers and that all of the factory's actions fully complied with Myanmar law.