Myanmar’s garment workers grow desperateAs unions demand more sanctions, low-paid factory laborers fear for their jobsBy Matt Blomberg / Thomson Reuters Foundation, YangonAt a garment factory on the outskirts of Myanmar’s biggest city, Zin Mar Htun has been working through the night — doing unpaid overtime in a desperate attempt to keep her job. Myanmar workers, mostly from garment and shoe factories, take part in a May Day march in 2018 in Yangon, Myanmar. Workers in the Great Forever factory stitch clothes in the Hlaing Tharyar industrial zone outside Yangon, Myanmar in 2015. Since the coup, union leaders from the sector have used established networks to mobilise workers in strikes and protests. “We are doing what we believe.”’RACE TO THE BOTTOM’But critics say deeper economic sanctions could do irreversible damage to the sector and put workers at further risk.

Source: Taipei Times December 13, 2021 19:00 UTC