Textures of Struggle: The Emergence of Resistance among Garment Workers in Thailand

2. Resistance and Worker Rebellion: The “Militant” Women

2 Resistance and Worker Rebellion The “Militant” Women The stories of women in this chapter reveal a “militant” consciousness evolving at a time when the textile industry was at its height in the early 1990s. Economic prosperity meant greater profits for factory owners and greater exploitation for workers. Workers in manufacturing industries were often subjected to various direct and forcible forms of control, paltry wages, and truly horrible work conditions, prompting a surge in labor unrest in the form of spontaneous and sporadic outbreaks, wildcat strikes, and protests at medium and large factories throughout the urban industrial zones outside of Bangkok. Workers were able to gain the support of workers’groups and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and agencies during this time. It is important to keep in mind that the workers at Factory Two (F2), like the women at the Hara factory, had been working under oppressive conditions for several years before they started to do something about their situation. This prompted me to look into the reasons behind the women’s struggle at this factory and raise questions regarding worker militancy. What triggered mobilization and active resistance among these women factory workers? What was their path to militancy? My findings suggest that both the degree of exploitation (in terms of hours and pay) and the relationship between the factory owner and the women workers play a large part in shaping the women’s collective consciousness . The degree of exploitation, however, is only one among many factors that generate and shape resistance; the likelihood and possibility 2 Resistance and Worker Rebellion 81 of worker mobilization also depends upon the women themselves, upon their shared experiences on the shop floor, and upon what the factory does and does not provide for its workers. In contrast to workers at F1, which had no history of protest, the workers at F2 had reason to rebel. I examined their struggles through retrospective accounts of their experiences of labor militancy, and discovered how the women’s vested commitment in those struggles came to shape and define their personal and social lives on and off the factory floor. The factory became the setting where women collectively bonded as they became increasingly unhappy with their work conditions and began to question their situation. At the same time, their stories reveal the highly oppressive forms of control over labor and uncover those mechanisms employed to dampen women’s individual and collective struggles. For the handful of women who led the struggle against their employer, their lives no longer revolved around work but instead revolved around union organizing efforts. Their experiences of militancy and activism thereby came to shape and define every facet of their lives. The Women at Factory Two (F2) Between September and December 1998 and from September to December 1999, I conducted in-depth interviews with six women from Factory Two (five of whom had been dismissed for their union activities); one woman employed at the factory who was head of the workers’ union at the time; two women who had been laid off from PF, the parent factory of F2 and F4 (located in the export processing zone of Rangsit, in the outlying district of Pratumthani); and four women from different factories located in the urban industrial zones of the Central Region where unionized textile factories are strongest. The women at F2 had worked for an average of eight to ten consecutive years since the factory opened in 1987. Due to the vast amounts of data generated in the narratives of each of the women, I have selected a core group of six militant women to be the focus of this discussion. The six women not only were the leaders of the workers ’ union at F2 but were the only workers I had access to because most of the women involved in mobilization efforts at the factory had been fired for their union activities and had left the city or found employment elsewhere . Because many of the women currently employed at F2 had not been involved in actions that led to the establishment of the factory’s first workers’ union, the few women I interviewed were able to provide vivid 82 Textures of Struggle and detailed retrospective accounts of their experiences, which enabled me to learn about the hundreds of other women at the factory who were involved in the struggle at the time. Interviews with militant women...