Travel and Leisure > The Thai Labour Museum – A History of Strife, Sweat and Toil
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Article rating : 0.00, 0 votes. Author : Eric Lim
The Thai Labour Museum is housed in a modest single story
red building by the railway line near the Makkasan railway
station. The building used to be the railway police station, then
the railway labour union office, before being converted to a
museum on 17 October 1993.
The monument outside the Thai Labour Museum signifying
the "Dignity of Labour" shows a man and a woman pushing a
huge wheel, the wheel of history.
The museum captures the 300-year history of the Thai labour
movement from the days of slavery to the present, tracing the
evolution of the Thai labour.
Latest News - Thai Labour
Museum faces demolition
On 18 November 2005, the State Railway of Thailand
announced plans to repossess land currently occupied by the
museum to build a transport complex linking the city to the
new Suvarnabhumi International Airport.
If this goes through, the old building in Makkasan would be
demolished. The Labour Museum Committee is petitioning
Parliament to allow the museum to stay put. We hope that
their efforts will be successful.
Slavery
The journey in the Thai Labour Museum starts with the period
of slavery. Since the 1700s slaves and commoners or Phrai
worked without wages. The Phrai were tattooed with their
names of the area of abode and their masters.
The advent of paid labour
The Bowing Treaty in 1855 in the reign of King Rama IV
opened up trade and pressure for reform. Increased labour
demand was met by the influx of Chinese immigrants. This was
the advent of paid labour though conditions were abysmal.
Reform – the abolition of slavery
In 1873, King Chulalongkorn or King Rama V abolished
slavery, a watershed in the history of Thai labour fittingly
recorded in the Thai Labour Museum. All men were free to
seek employment for a fair wage.
Political reform and the labour
movement
The early 1920s had no clear government policy on labour.
Labour had no right of organization. Industrial disputes and
strikes were frequent. Intellectuals, the pioneers of the labour
movement, tried to raise awareness to this growing problem.
The 1932 coup brought hopes of
improvement. The Thai Tram
Workers Association, the first labour union was formed. A
nationalist economic policy required Thai ownership of
companies, registration of unemployed and recognition of
workers' rights.
World War II and the Cold War
The Japanese occupation in World War II put a halt to things,
causing unemployment, inflation and severe hardships. Many
workers joined the underground resistance movement.
Thai labour's setback continued during the Cold War. Military
dictators, who were staunchly anti-communist and anti-labour,
clamped down on labour as workers' rights and unions were
considered unfavourable to investment.
The turbulent 1970s to the end of the century
Widespread discontent forged an alliance of workers, farmers
and students that boiled over in 1973. The video in the Thai
Labour Museum gives a detailed account of the events leading
up to the bloodbath on 14 October 1973.
Other problems were that of abuse of child and women labour
and gross neglect of workers' safety. In 1993 188 workers,
mostly women, perished when a fire burnt down the Kader
Doll Factory. The 1997 economic crisis was another bitter pill.
Thai labour and Songs for life
The last stop in the Thai Labour Museum is a fitting finale as it
embodies the spirit of the politically disenchanted, the
exploited and neglected. The labour movement took their
plight to the people through music.
Hardships and toil are expressed through songs with poignant
images of broken dolls and tearful children mourning the loss
of their mothers in the Kader Doll Factory fire.
Current issues facing Thai labour today
Issues still facing Thai labour today are a fair minimum daily
wage, the privatization of state enterprises and workers' safety.
Will a new page be written in Thai labour history for inclusion
in the Thai Labour Museum?
To get to this museum by the railway, please see map to the Thai
Labour Museum.
Review the 300-year history of the Thai labour movement at
the Thai Labour Museum
when you next Tour Bangkok Legacies.
The author Eric Lim, a free-lance writer, lives in Bangkok
Thailand.
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