For one month, I posed as a laborer looking for work in a garment factory. I went to see the conditions of these places. From my experience, I visited and inquired about the wages of apparel factories in Bangkok, Thailand. I saw the work in these factories that are producing products for many name brand companies. I went to 13 factories and every one treated their employees very poorly. Some of them make only $3 for one day of work. They do not value the people who work for them.
Many of these companies hire people who travel from surrounding poor countries. They come to Thailand with hopes to make more money than they could in their home country. The company hires people who do not have documents for Thailand. This way they do not have to pay the workers a fair and legal wage. The employee will not report them to authorities or else they will lose their job.
The condition of a Victoria’s Secret factory where Burmese refugee workers were seamstresses is not safe. The place is not clean and the wage is quite low, lower than the legal minimum wage. These staff work 15 hours every day with little break. They are treated very badly. It was difficult for me to see these women in this place. Their faces were sad and they worked very hard.
Many other factories that produce Levi’s jeans also paid lower wages to make products that are sold in the store at a high price. This place is also very unsafe. There were heavy chemicals and it was hard to breathe. Men did not have proper masks to protect themselves. They also wore sandals when they operated big dangerous machines. It was very hard for me to know they are paid very little and these clothing and shoes are so expensive.
The hard labor in low-paying production makes me feel as though no one cares for them. Not the owner of the factory, not the company who hired them, not anyone who manages them in the factory, and not the law enforcement who is supposed to make sure the companies are following the law.
After seeing so many factories treat Burmese refugees so poorly, I do not want to purchase anything from their company. The people of Myanmar are suffering in a civil war and they come to Thailand to find safety and to provide for their family. The place they come to is not safe and now they are in a different kind of danger. They now have a different kind of fear.
Only two companies paid the legal wage, but the factory was still not good. They were clean, but the people were not treated well.
I don't want to support the products of these companies. They do not care about people. They only care about money. Many times I have cried for these people in the factories. I want to support companies and factories who treat people the way God would want them to be treated.