Workers organised with the Federation of General Workers Myanmar (FGWM) report about severe problems and labour rights violations at Very Impressive Prospect (VIP) factory. Established in 1982, VIP focuses “on the development of carbon fiber composites and also provide[s] comprehensive manufacturing services for well-known brands among the world“. (vipsports.com.tw) It has its headquarter in Taichung City (Taiwan). In this report the allegations focus on the VIP factory in Shwe Pyi Thar Industrial Zone 3, Yangon Region (Myanmar), where around 2 800 workers produce mostly sports equipment for brands like the Wilson Sporting Goods Company (USA), BH bicycles (Spain) and Bianchi bicycles (Italy).

☆ Latest Updates ☆ Reports by workers ☆ Demands by factory workers ☆ How things started ☆ What now? ☆

UPDATES

September 2nd 2024

Workers on the ground inform that the labour dispute inside VIP factory ended for now. They managed to pressure the factory management to accept 12 demands, including the formation of a Workplace Coordination Committee. In an environment shaped by a military junta, where labour unions are still considered illegal, this is a great success! We congratulate the workers and are willing to stand side by side with the factory workers again in the future, if needed!

August 13th 2024

Workers of all departments start another wildcat strike demanding increases in wages and a general stop on labour rights violations!

FGWM informs:

Due to increasing commodity prices and difficulties surviving, VIP workers announced their 12 demands, including increase in wages and attendance and experience bonuses, stopping to force workers to work on public holidays, and allowing them to take legal leaves. On the first day, the factory management informed police and military soldiers to visit the workplace to stop the strike. The factory production manager threatened workers stating that they can’t agree with the workers’ demands and the factory would be closed if they continued the strike. On the second day, 14 August, the employer arranged a meeting with five workers’ representatives and the chief of Shwe Pyi Thar Police to investigate and threaten. “You all are leaders of this strike, and it is illegal, so we will arrest you. You are all responsible for this if workers refuse to work for three days. You have two options: accept the employer’s offer or face your arrest,” a worker informed FGWM. “In our past experiences, they (the employer) told the police and the military to hit, to intimidate workers and to follow the worker’s leaders till their homes”, a worker said. In 2023, the VIP factory dismissed a worker organizer due to her organizing efforts inside the factory. Also back then the HR manager, Daw May Thwel Soe, invited police and soldiers to the workplace and told them in front of workers that the employer could bribe police to arrest workers. The employer still refuses to reinstate the dismissed worker organizer. A worker inside the factory said, “As always happened, our factory will bring police and soldiers, intimidated workers. We want to inform the public and the brands ordering from us of this situation.”

April 8th 2024

April 3rd & April 7th 2024

Wilson Sporting Goods (owned by Amer Sports) confirmed that they hired a team to investigate conditions at VIP Myanmar factory. On April 3rd they met with a member of the VIP factory union. On April 7th the investigation team talked to two former workers who were union members as well and recently got dismissed.

It remains to be seen, if the investigations will result in any significant changes inside the factory for the Workers involved.

March 29th 2024

Workers on the ground report about cuts in water supply for those departments with union members.

March 27th 2024

March 20th 2024

March 17th 2024

The struggle at VIP factory was included in this years’ call for Global May Day 2024! All unions are asked to stand in solidarity with the factory workers during their May Day actions.

March 9th 2024

BH Bikes responds to the email sent by ICL Working Group Asia with a standard email:

March 8th 2024

Workers on the ground provide footage recently recorded from inside the factory proving that Bianchi keeps sourcing from VIP factory, though the factory management tries to prevent workers from taking pictures.

March 4th 2024

Feb. 28th – March 4th 2024

ICL Working Group Asia reaches out to BH Bikes and Bianchi asking them for a statement on the problems expressed by the workers on the ground, to get in touch with FGWM and to pressure the factory owner to resolve the conflict in the interest of the workers.

We want to make clear that we as the International Confederation of Labour (ICL-CIT) stand side by side with our friends in Myanmar. Since Bianchi sources parts from VIP factory we expect you to get in touch with the workers on the ground by contacting FGWM and also pressure the factory management to resolve the issues peacefully and in the interest of the workers!

from the email sent to the brands

Brands are asked to respond by March 10th, otherwise we feel forced to escalate the struggle even further on the international level.

Workers on the ground report:

• Union busting! Workers active in the union get less bonus payments. Factory management claims that there is no labour union for their factory. Those workers who dare to still approach remaining labour union activists are threatened.
• Taking days off is denied! Applications for legal leave are not granted. Workers are also denied medical leave. Those who demand entitled leave are pressured to sign warning letters. After four warning letters the worker gets fired.
• Lack of safety measures! Frequent work accidents. Accidents happen with the machines, resulting in broken bones. But also allergic reactions due to dust and toxic fumes in the sanding department are a problem. Necessary protection gear and ointment is hardly available. Furthermore the stock of medical equipment is inadequate.
  Additionally workers are exposed to hazardous chemicals at the moulding department. Workers are instructed to wash the molds with MEK (Butanone) and feel unwell (hotness in the stomach, dizziness) when using it.

There are also chemicals at sanding and painting departments, which usually are hidden away by the factory, when the factory inspection visits. And there is no awareness training on how to use those chemicals and their side effects.

VIP factory worker

• Unclean drinking water and unhygienic sanitary conditions! Toilet doors are broken and can’t be locked. No soap is available.
• During factory inspections the management selects workers and instructs them what to say, for example claiming that there are no night shifts.

Factory management arranges pre-orchestrated answer sheets for audits done by brands. They handed out the answer sheet to the workers whom the audit will interview and then instructed them to answer accordingly. Workers who answer wrongly get punished afterwards. For example by denying overtime work.

VIP factory worker

• No respect! Supervisors technicians shout at the workers.
  Some female workers also report about cases of sexual harassment by drunken technicians at night.
• Unreasonable production targets! Workers are pressured to finish unreasonable production targets and are forced to sign warning letters, if targets are not met. Once again, after four warning letters, workers are fired.
• Workers are pressured to do work which is not covered by their working contract, e.g. cut plants and clean the area.

The factory workers demand:

• Reinstatement of two fired labour union secretaries!
• Management (esp. HR management) must stop methods of unions busting!
• Stop methods of intimidation, e.g. forcing workers to sign warning letters when applying to take leave!
• Legally entitled leave must be granted!
• New factory machines must be installed!
• Industry-grade safety gloves, boots, shields, earbuds and sufficient ointment medical lotion! Protection gear must be provided to all workers!
  Also soap for hand-washing is needed!
• Allow injured workers to take paid medical leave as required by the doctors and until workers fully recover! After all workplace accidents are a result of the managements’ failure to provide a safe work environment (e.g. repair/replace broken machines).
• Factory management must negotiate with workers on reasonable production targets and stop threatening with warning letters, if targets are not met!
• Stop threatening behavior by supervisors! No more verbal abuse! No more gender-based violence and sexual harassment!
  HR manager Mr. M.T.S. must start a dialogue and negotiate with workers.
• Management must stop manipulating the audits done by the brands and authorities!
  No repression for workers who honestly answer questions during audits.
  Most importantly, factory must allow members of the union to meet with the buyers’ audit team to respond to their questions regarding the conditions at work.
• Management must educate workers on the dangers related to the use of hazardous chemicals and how to react if contacted! Prohibited hazardous chemicals should not be used inside the factory.
• Management must stop assigning workers to different departments without their consent!

How things started

December 23rd 2023

Union secretary Ms. M. M. K. was unfairly dismissed by the factory. Before the dismissal, she was working at the molding line 3 during which she was shouted at by the technician for accidentally breaking something. This led to an argument between the two. As a result she was immediately dismissed with a notification letter. The letter states that she has already been warned and had signed the three warning letters before. This was the fourth time and therefore she was dismissed.

December 26th 2023

The workers from the union organised a collective bargaining strike inside the factory compound demanding for the reinstatement of the dismissed union secretary along with other demands.
While on strike, police, soldiers, township administration and labor officers arrived at the factory. Upon arrival, they collected the personal information and home addresses of the striking workers. They also checked the mobile phones of labour union activists. Afterwards they were brought to the factory office at which a lieutenant and a labor officer arbitrated the negotiation between the factory owner and the workers. However, the negotiation favorably sided with the factory owner. The striking workers were threatened by the authorities that they will be arrested if they launch a strike again tomorrow and that they will be in danger if they upload the photos about this online. During that negotiation, a lieutenant also slapped one of the union secretaries, who is a union executive member. The factory owner and factory manager, during this negotiation, urged the authorities to arrest the dismissed union secretary. For safety reasons, workers decided to return to work and wait for adequate reactions from the involved brands.

December 27th 2023

When the striking workers returned to work, factory management demanded them to sign the warning letter.
Factory management also deducted half of the daily wages of the 36 workers who joined the strike, though they had worked a full eight-hour-workday. They were also pressured to sign the warning letters under the pretext of not completing the production target.
During these days, forcing the workers to complete the unreasonable production target during day and night shifts became worse.

December 28th 2023

The current department in-charge of sanding line 3 verbally and privately warned a fellow union executive committee member not to mobilise workers from painting line 3 and sanding line 3 to organize the collective bargaining action.
On the same day, factory management coerced the workers to sign that they voluntarily agreed to work overtime.

December 29th 2023

At 4:15pm factory management brought four union activists into the office and unilaterally refused to accept any of the striking workers’ demands giving various reasons.

December 30th 2023

Factory management took pictures of staff IDs of workers who were involved in the strike. The management personnel exerts oppression on those workers in addition to daily surveillance.

January 15th 2024

Factory management forces a worker who refused to sign the warning letter on December 28th to work overtime without his consent.

January 18th 2024

Without acknowledging the workers’ representatives elected by the workers, the factory management unilaterally posted the names and photos of the appointed six workers’ representatives on the factory wall. The workers reported that out of the appointed six, they are only familiar with four people who are currently at the workplace and the other two are those who no longer work at the factory.
Moreover, workers, who were involved in the strike, were transferred to different departments without their consent. Three days after the transfer, they were confronted with high production targets and asked to sign the warning letter if unable to complete the target. Five days later, supervisors asked them to sign the second warning letter.

February 3rd/ 4th 2024

Audit team visited the factory. Factory owner made sure that workers told the audit staff only what they want them to say. No report was made available to the workers until now (Feb. 23rd 2024).

February 20th 2024

Labour union executive committee member Ms. M. M. K. was fired. She received the majority of votes when the workplace coordination committee was formed.

What now?

International partners (International Confederation of Labour (ICL-CIT) and Solidarity Center) approach brands and inform them about the conditions inside the factory. Wilson Sporting Goods announced to initiate independent investigations inside the factory. The other brands did not react adequately yet. An international call to action in solidarity with the factory workers is coming up soon.

Stay tuned.